Mental Health
Read This Book and Call Me in a Week
Doctors in England are prescribing self-help books for mild depression instead of medication. This practice, bibliotherapy, provides patients with non-medication option. For patients with severe depression symptoms, medications are warranted. I’m sure the U.S. is watching and waiting to see how well this model works, and as a nation we already love self-help books and tapes and gurus. However, U.K.’s adoption of bibliotherapy may stem from a practical fact:
In Britain, the National Heath Service covers everyone’s medicines and doctor visits, free of charge.
Bibliotherapy also helps free up physicians to treat seriously depressed or mentally ill patients. Bibliotherapy also allows patients who has a long wait to see a physician (what you get for “free” you often pay with time) to have an alternative “prescription.”
Source: Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2005. “For Mild Depression, Some U.K. Doctors Prescribe Reading”
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All information in Jane's Mental Health Source Page website is for your information and education. The information does not replace or substitute for professional medical treatment or for professional medical advice relative to a specific medical question or condition.
[...] Last year, some doctors in the U.K. were literally prescribing self-help books for mildly depressed patients. [...]