Wow, bullshit headline.
Literally in the article it says that happiness and antidepressant usage doesn’t correlate
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Use of antidepressants increased by nearly two and a half times from 2000 to 2020 in 18 European countries, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data.
A closer look at five selected countries –France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden - over 20 years demonstrates how the use of antidepressant pharmaceuticals varies.
There is no official comparable data on the share of people reported having chronic depression or consulting a psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist.
In 2019 Eurostat found that 7.2 per cent of EU citizens reported having chronic depression which was only a tiny increase compared with 2014 (+0.3 percentage points).
Recent surveys released by the OECD found that mental health has deteriorated significantly since the start of the COVID‑19 pandemic.
Researchers who studied the influences on antidepressant prescribing trends in the UK between 1995 and 2011, suggested that the increase can be attributed to the improved recognition of depression, availability of new AD drugs, changes in patient/GP attitudes, availability of therapies, evolving clinical guidelines, and a broadening of the range of indications treated with ADs.
The original article contains 1,194 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I know this data doesn’t define happiness, but I’m really surprised to see iceland that high up. Perhaps the cold winters really take their toll?
There is never one answer to these things but Seasonal affective disorder could be a factor.
Quote:
It is commonly, but not always, associated with the reductions or increases in total daily sunlight hours that occur during the summer or winter.
This is just a stab in the dark, but it seems to me like it’s possible that Icelanders are happier on average because the depressed ones are getting the medicine they need
Very interesting article
I guessed the UK. Because it’s shit here and getting worse
Then I was surprised to see it wasn’t, then saw that race chart, which showed us leading in 2017 and then just stopped? So we stopped prescriptions in 2017?
Doubt.
Data scientists got too depressed to continue gathering data in the UK.
