ArticleBMC family practice2011
Understanding the prescription of antidepressants: a Qualitative study among French GPs.
Article in BMC family practice, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Social position and antidepressant dose trajectories: a latent class analysis of a french cohort linked to the reimbursement register.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Antidepressant discontinuation in France from an intersectional perspective: a discrete-time survival analysis within the MAIHDA framework.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Should We Just Prescribe? Ethical Considerations When Using Antidepressants and Benzodiazepines For Emotional Distress.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2025Article
- Utilization of clinical practice guidelines and interprofessional collaboration in depression management in Swiss primary care: a cross-sectional survey study among primary care physicians.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Prepandemic psychotropic drug status in Portugal: a nationwide pharmacoepidemiological profile.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Drug prescription goals in primary care: a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2020Observational
- Attitudes and behaviour towards psychotropic drug prescribing in Swedish primary care: a questionnaire study.BMC family practice · 2019Article
- Becoming a 'pharmaceutical person': Medication use trajectories from age 26 to 38 in a representative birth cohort from Dunedin, New Zealand.SSM - population health · 2018Article
- Article
- Determinants of follow-up care associated with incident antidepressant use in older adults.BMC research notes · 2017Article
- Self-reported indications for antidepressant use in a population-based cohort of middle-aged and elderly.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2016Article
- Indication for pharmacological treatment is often lacking: a cross-sectional study on the quality of drug therapy among the elderly.BMC geriatrics · 2015Article
- How do GP practices and patient characteristics influence the prescription of antidepressants? A cross-sectional study.Annals of general psychiatry · 2015Article
- Why do general practitioners prescribe antidepressants to their patients? A pilot study.BioPsychoSocial medicine · 2014Article
- Evidence of prescription of antidepressants for non-psychiatric conditions in primary care: an analysis of guidelines and systematic reviews.BMC family practice · 2013Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOne-tenth of France's population is prescribed at least one antidepressant, primarily by General Practitioners. The reasons for this high prescription rate remain unclear. One-third of these prescriptions may not comply with clinical practice guidelines, and 20% are potentially unrelated to any psychiatric condition. Our aim was to explore how GPs declare they use antidepressants in daily practice and understand their reasons for prescribing them.
methodSix focus groups including a total of 56 rural and urban GPs, with four interviews were performed. The topic guide focused on reasons for prescribing antidepressants in various primary care situations. Phenomenological analysis was performed by four researchers.
resultsAntidepressants were seen as useful and not harmful. Personal assessment based on experience and feeling determined the GPs' decisions rather than the use of scales. Twenty-four "non-psychiatric" conditions possibly leading to prescription of antidepressants in primary care were found.
conclusionsThe GPs reported prescribing antidepressants for a wide range of conditions other than depression. The GPs' decision making process is difficult and complex. They seemed to prefer to focus on their difficulties in diagnosing depression rather than on useless overtreatment. Instead of using the guidelines criteria to detect potential cases of useful prescription, physicians tend to use their own tools based on gut feelings, knowledge of the patient and contextual issues.
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