Today I have the honor of interviewing one of my favorite psychiatrists on a topic that troubles me: overmedication in America. Dr. Pies is Professor of Psychiatry and Lecturer on Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. His most recent book is The Three-Petalled Rose: How the Synthesis of Judaism, Buddhism, and Stoicism Can Create a Healthy, Fulfilled and Flourishing Life. He has written many articles on the topic of overmedication, so I asked him the question: Are we overmedicating with psychiatric medications today?

Dr. Pies:  I often answer this by saying that we have a “twin peaks” phenomenon in this country, as regards prescription of psychiatric medications. I mean that there is evidence of both under- and over-prescribing, depending on the population studied and the clinicians doing the prescribing—as well as…