ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2006
Exploring potential explanations for the increase in antidepressant prescribing in Scotland using secondary analyses of routine data.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Discontinuing antidepressant medication: a qualitative evidence synthesis and logic model based on health professionals' views.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Should We Just Prescribe? Ethical Considerations When Using Antidepressants and Benzodiazepines For Emotional Distress.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2025Article
- Self-reported reasons for reducing or stopping antidepressant medications in primary care: thematic analysis of thePrimary health care research & development · 2023Article
- Changes over a decade in psychotropic prescribing for people with intellectual disabilities: prospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2020Article
- 'Doing the right thing': factors influencing GP prescribing of antidepressants and prescribed doses.BMC family practice · 2017Article
- Influences on antidepressant prescribing trends in the UK: 1995-2011.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2017Article
- Explaining the variation between practices in the duration of new antidepressant treatment: a database cohort study in primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2015Article
- Patient factors associated with SSRI dose for depression treatment in general practice: a primary care cross sectional study.BMC family practice · 2014Article
- Improving Access to Psychological Therapies and antidepressant prescribing rates in England: a longitudinal time-series analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2013Article
- Article
- Reviewing long-term antidepressants can reduce drug burden: a prospective observational cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2012Observational
- Incidence and drug treatment of emotional distress after cancer diagnosis: a matched primary care case-control study.British journal of cancer · 2012Article
- Antidepressants utilization among elderly in Lombardy from 2000 to 2007: dispensing trends and appropriateness.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2011Article
- Sales of antidepressants, suicides and hospital admissions for depression in Veneto Region, Italy, from 2000 to 2005: an ecological study.Annals of general psychiatry · 2011Article
- Trends in primary care antidepressant prescribing 1995-2007: a longitudinal population database analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2011Article
- Explaining the rise in antidepressant prescribing: a descriptive study using the general practice research database.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2009Article
- Appropriateness of antidepressant prescribing: an observational study in a Scottish primary-care setting.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2009Article
- 'A coal face option': GPs' perspectives on the rise in antidepressant prescribing.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2009Article
- Factors influencing variation in prescribing of antidepressants by general practices in Scotland.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2009Article
- Vigilance needed in recognizing behavior changes in patients taking statins.Primary care companion to the Journal of clinical psychiatry · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAntidepressant prescribing in general practice has dramatically increased since the beginning of the last decade.
aimTo determine if the increase in antidepressants prescribed in Scotland between 1995 and 2001 was due to increase in incidence, prevalence, care-seeking behaviour by patients, or identification by GPs of depression.
methodSecondary analysis of routine data. Prescribing information was obtained from Information and Statistics Division Scotland, psychosocial morbidity from the Scottish Health Surveys of 1995 and 1998 and GP consultations from the continuous morbidity recording (CMR) dataset. Annual trends in antidepressant prescribing for prescriptions, gross ingredient cost and defined daily doses (DDDs) were examined for all Scottish Practices and 54 stable CMR practices (175 955 patients). Prevalence of psychological morbidity in responders with a General Health Questionnaire score > or = 4, their contact probability and contact frequency was compared in the 1995 and 1998 Scottish Health Surveys. Changes in diagnostic and GP consultation patterns in CMR practices were compared.
resultsTotal prescriptions for antidepressants increased from 1.5 million in 1995-1996 to 2.8. million in 2000-2001. The gross ingredient cost increased from pounds 20 to pounds 44 million and total DDDs from 44.5 to 93.2 million. Prescription trends in CMR practices were similar. Overall prevalence of psychological morbidity was the same in the 1995 and 1998 Scottish Health Surveys. Percentage of consultations in CMR practices for new diagnoses of depression decreased from 1.7 to 1.3%, the depression-related contact rate decreased and annual prevalence rates for depressive illness were stable between 1998-1999 and 2000-2001.
conclusionsThere is no evidence of an increase in incidence, prevalence, care-seeking behaviour or identification of depression during the period of a sharp increase in antidepressant prescribing. Further work is required to explain the increase.
Indexed as
Identifiers
16762123PMC1839016W2149042973What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.