Many psychiatrists and scientists worry about this antipsychotic boom. They point out that there’s limited evidence of the drugs’ usefulness in treating depression over the long term, and that they have serious side effects, such as sedation, dramatic weight gain, and an increased risk of diabetes. In about one-quarter of cases, these drugs also cause akathisia, a pronounced feeling of restlessness described as making you want to jump out of your skin.

“What’s happened recently is remarkably heavy marketing of antipsychotics,” Allen Frances, former chairman of the psychiatry department at Duke University School of Medicine, told BuzzFeed News. Doctors, he added, are prescribing antipsychotics for depression “too quickly, without clear indication, and under pressure from pharmaceutical companies.”

For some people with depression, Frances noted, these drugs work wonders. But that’s probably not the case for the majority of people trying them. A 2009 paper found that, statistically, for every nine people with depression who take these drugs, just one is effectively treated. “These drugs should have a narrow indication, and instead they’ve become the highest revenue-producing drugs in America,” Frances said.