Sharp rise in antidepressant use

Main Category: Depression
Article Date: 24 Aug 2003 - 0:00 PDT

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The number of antidepressants prescribed by general practitioners (USA) more than doubled between 1975 and 1998 to 23.4 million per year.

But a report in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin claims there is little evidence to justify such widespread use.

Possible reasons for the sharp rise in prescribing include greater awareness of depression, guidelines advocating that patients stay on therapy for at least 4 to 6 months after resolution of their symptoms, and industry promotion of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, the report said.

Most patients with depression who go to their general practitioner have depressive symptoms that fall short of the criteria for major depressive disorder used in most clinical trials, the report continued. Consequently, there is no reliable efficacy data on the benefits of treating mild depression.

'Serious questions must be asked as to whether there is any real benefit from the routine early use of antidepressant drugs in patients with the sort of mild depression seen in UK general practice,' the bulletin's editor, Professor Joe Collier, commented in a statement.

'For many patients with depressive symptoms seen in general practice, a supportive watchful waiting approach is reasonable. An immediate prescription for antidepressant medication is not usually justified,' he concludes.

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