With more and more people in Japan complaining of depression, drug companies are enjoying a bonanza in pushing antidepressants.
Aggressive publicity campaigns by pharmaceutical companies have eroded a long-standing aversion to taking antidepressants or going to hospitals for outpatient treatment of depression for fear of being stigmatized as having mental problems.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of Britain conducted a campaign in Japan last autumn aimed at enhancing public understanding of depression. It received more than 40,000 responses.
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