Generation RX

Film Review: Generation Rx

            Generation Rx, is a documentary covering the controversial topic of the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically Generation Rx uncovers the secrets of the industry and what information they try to keep from you. Some of the major focal points of the documentary were the over diagnosis of ADHD and the suicidal and violent reactions from Anxiety and depression medication.

The first topic talked about in the documentary was the issue regarding the diagnosis of ADHD. The DSM determines all the mental disorders diagnostics, and is the primary tool for diagnosing people in America. As soon as ADHD was put into the DSM there was a surge of people diagnosed with ADHD. Many physicians speculate on why this is the case. An interesting point made Katherine Harmon suggests a different theory on why so many kids are being diagnosed with ADHD. In her article she  “found that students whose birthdays fell just before their school’s age enrollment cutoff date—and thus were among the youngest in their class—had a substantially higher rate of ADHD diagnoses than students who were born just a day or two later and were the oldest in the grade below” (Harmon). If this were true that would mean that our youth are being tricked into believing they have something wrong with them, when really they are just being diagnosed incorrectly. The tricky thing about diagnosing is that there is never a 100% correct diagnosis. According to Jeremy Minyard, “There are no reliable biological indicators in most cases of autism. Behavioral symptoms vary widely and often overlap with other neurological disorders” (Minyard). This can explain why so many are often lumped into a category of having a mental disorder.  One of the main points from the documentary was that there needs to be better, more accurate diagnoses in the DSM.

Another important portion to the documentary was the dangers with the drugs being prescribed. The battle between kickbacks started a vicious cycle of prescribing patients medication with potentially harmful and suicidal side effects. Some products that induce this behavior include Fluoxeteine also known as Prosac and Zoloft. The problem is that the Pharmaceutical companies are going directly to medical practitioners endorsing their medication. When a certain number of prescriptions are filled a certain amount of kickbacks go directly to the Doctors. I found this documentary very intriguing and eye-opening. This documentary directly relates to the class for many reasons. For one, people diagnosed with a mental disorder often carry their mental illness as their master status. This often is attached with stigmatization from society. These stigmas are often filled with negative connotations regardless of medical knowledge of the illness.

I think in order to improve the ethics of diagnosing patients, there should be laws implementing ethical diagnoses. Theoretically speaking, if “kickbacks” became illegal would there be a drop in prescription medication? I would like to find out if more physicians would choose more effective methods such as Cognitive Behavioral methods that are proven to work. I think if this were to happen less people will be diagnosed with mental disorders and more individuals will live a “normal” life. What I would really like to see is how the DSM diagnosis “normal” and with that description, how many people fall into that category?

Work Cited

Harmon, Katherine. "Are Some ADHD-labeled kids just Young for their Grade?.”

 Scientific American. (2010).

Minyard, Jeremy. "The Autism Information Epidemic." contexts discoveries.

American Sociology Association, 15 11 2010. Web. 11 Mar 2012. <http://contexts.org/discoveries/the-autism-information-epidemic/>.