9 Times The Media Tried To Scare Us With Bad Science
7. We're All Depressed (Bonus: It's Costing You Money)
Here's a classic example of how the same data can be manipulated to suit your purposes. Data analysis, in general, is problematic, as pretty much any statistic can be presented to support any argument if you set your mind to it.
The findings that were published found that doctors were giving out and increased number of prescriptions for anti-depressants and, in response, The Independent ran with "Escalating depression crisis is costing Britain £11bn a year".
Right, first things first, the Independent article innumerates the various costs of the treatment of depression, using lots of big scary numbers and breaking down exactly how many millions of taxpayer's pounds are being spent.
The problem here is that there are no previous statistics reported, providing no evidence that the figures are any worse than they used to be.
The "escalation" part of the claim actually comes from the rise in the number of individual prescriptions that are dispensed by doctors. The Independent interprets this as evidence that, as a nation, we are more depressed.
However, the increase in prescription numbers is more likely to be due to doctors prescribing medication in smaller quantities at regular intervals. This is a way of reducing the risk of overdose.
The article also ignores that fact that an increase in reported cases of depression does not necessarily mean that more people are depressed, it can simply mean that more people are getting help. This is probably due to the massive reduction in the stigma attached to the disease over recent years.
The article finally wraps up with a lovely "case study" in which one person describes how they visited Beachy Head twice, contemplating suicide. This is, of course, a tragic situation for anybody to be in, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the rise in anti-depressant prescriptions, and everything to do with the fact that the Independent felt the need to crowbar a bit of emotional manipulation into an already needlessly emotive article. Just to hammer home how upset you should be.