Yet this 11% figure may overestimate the number of people who benefit from antidepressants. Antidepressants are also prescribed to people who do not qualify for the diagnosis of major depression. My neighbor’s pet dog died; his physician prescribed an antidepressant. A friend in the US was diagnosed with lumbar muscle spasms and was prescribed an antidepressant. I have lost count of the number of people who have told me they were prescribed antidepressants when complaining of insomnia – even though insomnia is a frequently reported side effect of antidepressants. About 20% of patients suffering from insomnia in the United States are given antidepressants as a treatment by their primary care physicians (Simon & VonKorff, 1997), despite the fact that “the popularity of antidepressants in the treatment of insomnia is not supported by a large amount of convincing data, but rather by opinions and beliefs of the prescribing physicians” (Wiegand, 2008, p. 2411). - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov