ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2009
Factors influencing variation in prescribing of antidepressants by general practices in Scotland.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pay-for-performance in the United Kingdom: impact of the quality and outcomes framework: a systematic review.Annals of family medicinePooled it
- Antidepressant use in the Canary Islands (Spain): a retrospective study of provincial, island and municipal trends and associated factors.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
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- [Effects of COVID-19 on the consumption of antidepressants in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands].Farmaceuticos comunitarios · 2023Article
- Practice characteristics influencing variation in provision of depression care in general practice in Norway; a registry-based cohort study (The Norwegian GP-DEP study).BMC health services research · 2022Article
- An analysis of antidepressant prescribing trends in England 2015-2019.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2021Article
- Context and general practitioner decision-making - a scoping review of contextual influence on antibiotic prescribing.BMC family practice · 2021Article
- The Person's Care Requires a Sex and Gender Approach.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
- Use of sequence analysis for classifying individual antidepressant trajectories to monitor population mental health.BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
- Changes over a decade in psychotropic prescribing for people with intellectual disabilities: prospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2020Article
- Geographical Variation in Medication Prescriptions: A Multiregional Drug-Utilization Study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
- Primary care use of laboratory tests in Northern Ireland's Western Health and Social Care Trust: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Article
- Prescriptive variability of drugs by general practitioners.PloS one · 2018Article
- 'Doing the right thing': factors influencing GP prescribing of antidepressants and prescribed doses.BMC family practice · 2017Article
- Data Resource Profile: The Scottish National Prescribing Information System (PIS).International journal of epidemiology · 2016Article
- Variation and ethnic inequalities in treatment of common mental disorders before, during and after pregnancy: combined analysis of routine and research data in the Born in Bradford cohort.BMC psychiatry · 2016Article
- Does depression diagnosis and antidepressant prescribing vary by location? Analysis of ethnic density associations using a large primary-care dataset.Psychological medicine · 2016Article
- Trends in the dispensation of antidepressant drugs over the past decade (2000-2010) in Andalusia, Spain.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe prescribing of antidepressants has been rising dramatically in developed countries.
aimAs part of an investigation into the reasons for the rise and variation in the prescribing of antidepressants, this study aimed to describe, and account for, the variation in an age-sex standardised rate of antidepressant prescribing between general practices. DESIGN OF STUDY: Cross-sectional study involving analyses of routinely available data.
settingA total of 983 Scottish general practices.
methodAge-sex standardised prescribing rates were calculated for each practice. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were undertaken to examine how the variation in prescribing was related to population, GP, and practice characteristics at individual practice level.
resultsThere was a 4.6-fold difference between the first and ninth deciles of antidepressant prescribing, standardised for registered patients' age and sex composition. The multivariate model explained 49.4% of the variation. Significantly higher prescribing than expected was associated with more limiting long-term illness (highly correlated with deprivation and the single most influential factor), urban location, and a greater proportion of female GPs in the practices. Significantly lower prescribing than expected was associated with single-handed practices, a higher than average list size, a greater proportion of GP partners born outside the UK, remote rural areas, a higher proportion of patients from minority ethnic groups, a higher mean GP age, and availability of psychology services. None of the quality-of-care indicators investigated was associated with prescribing levels.
conclusionAlmost half of the variation in the prescription of antidepressants can be explained using population, GP, and practice characteristics. Initiatives to reduce the prescribing of antidepressants should consider these factors to avoid denying appropriate treatment to patients in some practices.
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