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Originally published November 23 2003

Bad medicine: prescription drugs used for social phobias

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

It's ridiculous medicine: dosing people with prescription drugs just because they're afraid of social encounters or public speaking. Who isn't afraid of goofing up in public? The drug industry claims it's all due to -- of course -- imbalanced brain chemistry, and that you need a lifetime of prescription drugs to return your brain chemistry to normal.

Hogwash. What you need is training in public speaking. Or maybe you need to work on social skills. There's nothing wrong with your head, unless you've been taking a lot of prescription drugs already.



People with social anxiety disorder tend to avoid social situations or endure then under such distress that they can become physically ill, according to the Merck Manual of Medical Information. Situations that can trigger the social phobia that in an earlier era might have been deemed severe shyness include public speaking, performing in public, eating in front of others or using public bathrooms. Some 10 million Americans are affected by the condition, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Paxil CR is the controlled release version of the British drugmaker's top-selling antidepressant Paxil, which is facing eroding sales in the United States due to competition from cheaper generic copycats. The newly patented Paxil CR is not yet affected by generics.


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