By now, most have heard of the mental health crisis affecting Americans, especially younger Americans. 11.4% of adults and 4.5% of youth reported taking antidepressants. While this number may seem low, it’s on the rise. Antidepressant prescriptions for young adults have reportedly risen by nearly 64% from 2020 onward.

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Why is this the case? Are Americans, children especially, becoming severely more depressed over time? Or are companies and politicians working to dole out as many prescriptions as possible?

In a recent article published at the Daily Wire, conservative commentator Matt Walsh theorizes that the latter option is true. Focusing on corruption and conflicts of interest in the medical industry, he discusses the danger of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a new test being used to overmedicate children.

As Walsh explains, “PHQ-9 is a nine-item test that’s used to measure whether someone might need psychiatric treatment, including medications.” It’s being used across the country, and it was initially developed by Pfizer (!!!). The test asks patients whether they’ve experienced certain negative symptoms over the past few weeks, such as difficulty sleeping, feeling tired, or struggling to concentrate.

Who hasn’t dealt with these symptoms before? These aren’t necessarily evidence of mental illness; they’re evidence of the human condition. And yet, if the patient reports experiencing 5 of these symptoms in the past two weeks, they’re diagnosed with depression and prescribed a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, more commonly referred to as an SSRI.

If you think this basic test could lead to the diagnosis of problems that aren’t really there, you’d be absolutely right. Walsh recounts one specific example in which a stressed-out, brand-new stepmother was told she had depression and prescribed Zoloft, an SSRI. The mother later said the medication didn’t help, which makes sense. As Walsh put it, she “was pressured into taking psychoactive medication because of a survey that’s obviously imprecise, by design.”

You won’t be surprised to know that, as Walsh notes, Pfizer produces Zoloft. In fact, that’s the whole reason the PHQ-9 exists. As Walsh reports, the test was funded and created by Pfizer for the express purpose of selling and distributing SSRIs, which are known to have numerous and severe side effects (Zoloft’s own website reports problems like diarrhea, insomnia, and anxiety as “common side effects”).

What’s worse is that the PHQ-9 wasn’t even created by a real doctor. The test was the brainchild of marketing guru Howard Kroplick. He created this survey while employed by Pfizer to push SSRIs on the general public. And his survey is still being used today, even as studies show that the PHQ-9 does not accurately diagnose patients and that SSRIs may not be all that effective. Wash summarizes the whole situation beautifully:

To recap: Big Pharma wanted to market an SSRI. They hired a marketing guy to invent a survey that resulted in mass over-diagnosis of depression, which could then be treated by SSRIs made by Big Pharma. And it worked. Within a decade, SSRIs started printing billions of dollars every year. And through all of this, no one has any idea how SSRIs work, or if they work at all.

This is bad enough, but it gets worse. Even as many are calling this test and these medications into question, Democrats are doubling down. Left-wing politicians are pushing to compel children to take these tests. For example, Post Millennial recently reported that Illinois is requiring “mental health screenings” for public school students in the third grade and above. Although this report doesn’t mention the PHQ-9, we can assume children will be forced to take this test or similar surveys.

What will come from this decision? Well, we’ll likely see that 4.5% from the beginning of this article climb rapidly. As more states follow Illinois’ lead, it’s all but assured we’ll see scores of children wrongly diagnosed and prescribed mood-altering SSRIs.

The problem is bad enough as is. I remember when I was 18 years old and misdiagnosed with bipolar simply for telling a psychiatrist I regretted buying a $200 video game console. What I confessed to was a normal, human emotion (regret after making a large purchase), and what resulted was a misdiagnosis my mother fought tooth-and-nail to remove from my record.

To be sure, mental illness is a problem in this nation, especially among children. 40% of teens reported prolonged feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2023, while 20% said they had seriously considered suicide. These are alarming statistics, but the solution isn’t to overmedicate an entire generation of children. If anything, misdiagnoses only serve to gum up the whole system, stigmatize mental health, and take resources away from those who need them.

As believers, we worship Jesus Christ, the Great Physician who can heal all. Let’s pray that people would look to Christ, not the government or corrupt corporations, to heal and comfort them!

Share this article to warn people about the PHQ-9 and the overmedication of children in America!

(Nathan Tabler is IFA’s Communications Coordinator. Photo Credit: Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash)