Drugs taken needlessly

Photo / Thinkstock

More than a quarter of people in the United States who take antidepressants have never been diagnosed with any of the conditions the drugs are typically used to treat. As a result, millions could be exposed to side effects from the medicines without proven health benefits, said Jina Pagura, a psychologist and a medical student at the University of Manitoba in Canada, and colleagues who worked on the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.