CDC: More than 10% of American adolescents, adults take antidepressants

ATLANTA — More than 1-in-10 Americans ages 12 years and older take antidepressants, and the rate of antidepressant use in the United States among all ages increased 400% between 1988 and 2008, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found 11% of American adolescents and adults were using drugs to treat depression between 2005 and 2008. Girls and women were more likely than boys and men to take the drugs, while non-Hispanic whites were more likely to take them than non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans.

About one-third of people with severe depression took antidepressant drugs, while more than 60% of Americans taking the drugs had taken them for two years or longer. Fourteen percent had taken them for 10 years or longer.

Results of the study were based on the NHANES medical examination, which included 13,897 people ages 12 years and older.

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