Pierson Hill

Introduction

With 450 million people affected worldwide, mental disorders are a major issue in health care. In the US, Canada, and Western Europe, mental disorders are the most common form of disability, leading both cancer and heart disease. All together mental disorders account for 25% of disability in industrialized countries (World Health Organization, 2001). Recent advances in medical technology have allowed doctors to develop a multitude of prescription treatments for the most common psychological afflictions. Many of the new drugs have been marvelously effective in curing mental disorders and doctors and patients alike are more often resorting to them as a solution. While prescription pills may offer a quick and easy cure, they are not without their share of problems (World Health Organization, 2004).

Many current prescription drugs are used to combat a wide array of disorders. For instance, the drug fluoxetine is taken to treat some forms depression as well as eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa. In order to understand the most common forms of prescription treatments, it is necessary to first understand the diseases that they treat.