United States: More talk and fewer pills are being used to keep Americans’ minds healthy, according to a recent study.
Psychotherapy is increasingly occupying a greater role in mental health care, while the lack of concurrent therapy for medications prescribed is increasingly being typified, according to findings from early May in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
According to the lead researcher, Dr. Mark Olfson, “After years of American mental health care moving towards greater use of psychiatric medications, the pendulum has started swinging back towards psychotherapy,” US News reported.
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Among Americans with outpatient mental health care, 15% were dependent on psychotherapy only in 2021, compared to about 12% in 2018, researchers discovered.
Meanwhile, those who trusted in the medication alone to aid their mental wellbeing went down to 62% from a previous 68%, according to the results.
Such drugs were: antidepressants, antipsychotics, and ADHD meds.
Researchers said the percentage of patients receiving psychotherapy from psychiatrists fell from 41% to 34%.
“Psychiatrists provided psychotherapy to a decreasing percentage of all psychotherapy patients, which may have increased the need for psychiatrists to refer patients to and collaborate with non-physician psychotherapists,” as Olfson noted.
“At the same time, social workers and counselors, but not psychologists, assumed a larger role in providing psychotherapy, and there was an increase in the average number of psychotherapy visits per patient,” he maintained.