The Overmedication Crisis: How America’s “Easy Fix” Is Harming Its People

In today’s episode, we discussed how America’s faced with an epidemic of overmedicating it’s people. The government and pharmaceutical companies put profit over people in an endless cycle that doesn’t give individuals the social care and support we needs to heal trauma.

Thanks for listening <3

Cites:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2020). Psychotropic medication use among children in foster care: Cross-system analysis report. Administration for Children and Families. https://acf.gov/opre/report/nscaw-no-17-psychotropic-medication-use-children-child-welfare

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2025). Behavioral health: Federal efforts to address psychotropic drug use among foster and other children. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-106910

Wouters, O. J., McKee, M., & Luyten, J. (2020). Estimated research and development investment needed to bring a new medicine to market, 2009–2018. JAMA Internal Medicine, 180(6), 796–803. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2762509

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.

Junger, S. (2016). Tribe: On homecoming and belonging. Twelve.

Thomas, K. (2013, November 4). Johnson & Johnson to pay $2.2 billion in Risperdal settlement. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/business/johnson-johnson-to-settle-risperdal-improper-marketing-case.html

American Psychiatric Association. (2023). Psychiatry Online. https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.focus.10.3.401

Junger, S. (2017, May). Our lonely society makes it hard to come home from war [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_junger_our_lonely_society_makes_it_hard_to_come_home_from_war

Music:

"The Sky of our Ancestors" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/