What happens when you mix socialized take-a-number medicine with a nation of complainers and losers?

FRENCH DRIVEN TO DRUGS [Front page link]
LES BLEUS* DRIVE A QUARTER OF FRENCH
TO THE PILL BOTTLE

PARIS July 16, 2006 (Telegraph) - The depth of despair to which France has descended is revealed in a new study into the use of mood-altering medication. It found that doctors prescribed an unprecedented 120 million boxes of mood-altering drugs, known as psychotropes, including anti-depressants, sleeping tablets and tranquillisers.

The research, by scientists from Bordeaux, found that almost a quarter of all French - more than 15 million people - admitted taking psychotropes in the past year. This is four times more than in Germany, three times more than in Holland and 1.6 times more than their World Cup football rivals, the Italians. The French consume five times as many tranquillisers as the British.

One-third of the French population has taken mood-altering pills. Women take twice as many as men - especially after the age of 60. More worryingly, a quarter of all girls and a fifth of boys have been prescribed them before they reach 18, usually during adolescence.

The question researchers sought to answer was why, in a country that boasts of a better quality of life than its European neighbours, where workers enjoy a maximum 35-hour working week and retire early, and where the climate is generally clement, the population is so miserable.

Prof Bernard Bégaud, one of the authors of the 539-page report, Good Use of Psychotropic Drugs [commissioned by the French parliament], said the French had every reason to be happy.

"They are people who should be content and not have a complaint about anything, but who actually complain all the time. It's a culture of intolerance, individualism and never being satisfied."

The report also notes that 82% of the prescriptions are written by general practicioners with no psychiatric training. In France, patient sessions last less than 8 minutes on average. Prescribing medication based on a broad depression signature is quicker, more convenient, and less personally involving than lengthy interviews with a patient about why he or she feels mopey or suicidal.

[The report] said that half of those who had taken anti-depressants and more than two-thirds of those taking tranquillisers and sleeping tablets had no psychiatric problem requiring them. Conversely, half of those diagnosed with genuine psychiatric or psychological problems had not been prescribed the drugs.

Medical experts question the efficacy of such drugs, since France also has one of the highest suicide rates in Europe. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's latest figures for 1999 show 17.5 out of every 100,000 French take their own lives every year, compared with 10.4 Americans, 7.1 Italians and 7.5 Britons.

Prof Bernard Bégaud:

"I think the level of use of these drugs is an indication of the malaise in our civilisation [French civilization?]. If I was a politician I would look at these figures and say there is something really wrong in France."

Ah, M. Professeur, you think so?

* This. Not this. Glad to clear that up.

PFFT (What is this?): Les bleus 4½ | Rayonnement français 0

Bonjour,

[M. AB/AY goes on to post about three unrelated topics of his liking. He has noting to say about the French report on French drug use. He has no rebuttals for the comments of Prof Bernard Bégaud, one of the French authors of the report.

So we blow out M. AB/AY's comments -- one, two, three -- like candles. He can start his own blog and post about whatever he likes. Here, he follows our rules or he is gone. One, two three.

The Management]

Good luck to your country in Iraq !!!!!