The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Explaining the rise in antidepressant prescribing: a descriptive study using the general practice research database

Explaining the rise in antidepressant prescribing: a descriptive study using the general practice research database
Explaining the rise in antidepressant prescribing: a descriptive study using the general practice research database
Objective: to explore the reasons behind the recent increase in antidepressant prescribing in the United Kingdom.

Design: detailed retrospective analysis of data on general practitioner consultations and antidepressant prescribing. Data source: data were obtained from the general practice research database, which contains linked anonymised records of over 3 million patients registered in the UK. Data were extracted for all new incident cases of depression between 1993 and 2005.

Review methods: detailed analysis of general practitioner consultations and antidepressant prescribing was restricted to 170 practices that were contributing data for the full duration of the study.

Results: in total, 189 851 people within the general practice research database experienced their first episode of depression between 1993 and 2005, of whom 150 825 (79.4%) received a prescription for antidepressants in the first year of diagnosis. This proportion remained stable across all the years examined. The incidence of new cases of depression rose in young women but fell slightly in other groups such that overall incidence increased then declined slightly (men: 7.83 cases per 1000 patient years in 1993 to 5.97 in 2005, women: 15.83 cases per 1000 patient years in 1993 to 10.06 in 2005). Antidepressant prescribing nearly doubled during the study period—the average number of prescriptions issued per patient increased from 2.8 in 1993 to 5.6 in 2004. The majority of antidepressant prescriptions were given as long term treatment or as intermittent treatment to patients with multiple episodes of depression.

Conclusions: the rise in antidepressant prescribing is mainly explained by small changes in the proportion of patients receiving long term treatment. Previous clinical guidelines have focused on antidepressant initiation and appropriate targeting of antidepressants. To address the costly rise in antidepressant prescribing, future research and guidance needs to concentrate on appropriate long term prescribing for depression and regular review of medication

0959-8138
952-954
Moore, Michael
1be81dad-7120-45f0-bbed-f3b0cc0cfe99
Yuen, Ho Ming
b1df4c57-0c2a-44ac-ab40-22b88e8effe8
Dunn, Nick
181a3a1f-5ff7-4150-ad87-457fffb758ed
Mullee, Mark A.
fd3f91c3-5e95-4f56-8d73-260824eeb362
Maskell, Joe
f10981fc-239d-4a91-acb6-d71cb9586529
Kendrick, Tony
c697a72c-c698-469d-8ac2-f00df40583e5
Moore, Michael
1be81dad-7120-45f0-bbed-f3b0cc0cfe99
Yuen, Ho Ming
b1df4c57-0c2a-44ac-ab40-22b88e8effe8
Dunn, Nick
181a3a1f-5ff7-4150-ad87-457fffb758ed
Mullee, Mark A.
fd3f91c3-5e95-4f56-8d73-260824eeb362
Maskell, Joe
f10981fc-239d-4a91-acb6-d71cb9586529
Kendrick, Tony
c697a72c-c698-469d-8ac2-f00df40583e5

Moore, Michael, Yuen, Ho Ming, Dunn, Nick, Mullee, Mark A., Maskell, Joe and Kendrick, Tony (2009) Explaining the rise in antidepressant prescribing: a descriptive study using the general practice research database. BMJ, 339 (b3999), 952-954. (doi:10.1136/bmj.b3999). (PMID:19833707)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Objective: to explore the reasons behind the recent increase in antidepressant prescribing in the United Kingdom.

Design: detailed retrospective analysis of data on general practitioner consultations and antidepressant prescribing. Data source: data were obtained from the general practice research database, which contains linked anonymised records of over 3 million patients registered in the UK. Data were extracted for all new incident cases of depression between 1993 and 2005.

Review methods: detailed analysis of general practitioner consultations and antidepressant prescribing was restricted to 170 practices that were contributing data for the full duration of the study.

Results: in total, 189 851 people within the general practice research database experienced their first episode of depression between 1993 and 2005, of whom 150 825 (79.4%) received a prescription for antidepressants in the first year of diagnosis. This proportion remained stable across all the years examined. The incidence of new cases of depression rose in young women but fell slightly in other groups such that overall incidence increased then declined slightly (men: 7.83 cases per 1000 patient years in 1993 to 5.97 in 2005, women: 15.83 cases per 1000 patient years in 1993 to 10.06 in 2005). Antidepressant prescribing nearly doubled during the study period—the average number of prescriptions issued per patient increased from 2.8 in 1993 to 5.6 in 2004. The majority of antidepressant prescriptions were given as long term treatment or as intermittent treatment to patients with multiple episodes of depression.

Conclusions: the rise in antidepressant prescribing is mainly explained by small changes in the proportion of patients receiving long term treatment. Previous clinical guidelines have focused on antidepressant initiation and appropriate targeting of antidepressants. To address the costly rise in antidepressant prescribing, future research and guidance needs to concentrate on appropriate long term prescribing for depression and regular review of medication

Text
0.pdf - Version of Record
Download (127kB)

More information

Published date: 15 October 2009
Additional Information: CORRECTION: BMJ 2009; 339 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b4361 (Published 23 October 2009) Cite this as: BMJ 2009; 339: b4361
Organisations: Community Clinical Sciences, Primary Care & Population Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 143599
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/143599
ISSN: 0959-8138
PURE UUID: 562767f7-1495-4b3d-981e-db7adfb45dd7
ORCID for Michael Moore: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-4509
ORCID for Tony Kendrick: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1618-9381

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Apr 2010 13:15
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:50

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Michael Moore ORCID iD
Author: Ho Ming Yuen
Author: Nick Dunn
Author: Mark A. Mullee
Author: Joe Maskell
Author: Tony Kendrick ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×