apy towards medications has been supported by managed-care organizations. For these corporations, paying for drug treatments is considerably cheaper than therapy sessions. Considering that many patients rely on health insurance to receive their medical care, the managed-care organizations are essentially forcing patients to rely on medications to treat mental disorders. This fact has serious implications as the profit motive of managed-care corporations is undermining the quality of care provided to patients with mental problems. Depressed patients who can benefit from psychotherapy without using drugs are thus deprived of the opportunity to treat their problems appropriately (Gupta, 2002, p. 148).
In the article titled "More Kids Receiving Psychiatric Drugs," Vedantam (2003) reported a growing trend of treating children with drugs such as Prozac, Ritalin and Risperdal. Many of these powerful medications such as Risperdal that is used to treat schizophrenia are prescribed to children on Medicaid. Although it is suggested that the increased use of
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