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We generally identify a disease before we look around for its treatment. Observers argue that, these days, the sequence sometimes is reversed: The marketing of a pharmaceutical agent gives birth to a disease, often by “medicalizing” what is actually a natural part of human existence. Has this process created an epidemic of insomnia in the U.S.?
Researchers examined recent trends in the diagnosis and treatment of sleeplessness, using data from an annual population-based survey of U.S. outpatient visits. Between 1993 and 2007, patient complaints of sleeplessness more than doubled, and ICD-9 diagnoses of insomnia rose more than sevenfold. Both these increases, however, were dwarfed by the skyrocketing number of prescriptions written for sedativ…