ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2013
A nationwide prospective study on prescribing pattern of antidepressant drugs in Italian primary care.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- 5-HTTLPR and use of antidepressants after colorectal cancer including a meta-analysis of 5-HTTLPR and depression after cancer.Translational psychiatry · 2015Pooled it
- Trend analysis of antidepressant consumption in Italy from 2008 to 2022 in a public health perspective.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring the Complex Relationship Between Antidepressants, Depression and Neurocognitive Disorders.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Treating depression in clinical practice: new insights on the multidisciplinary use of trazodone.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Article
- Use of Antidepressants among Patients Diagnosed with Depression: A Scoping Review.BioMed research international · 2021Article
- Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in Patients With and Without Psychiatric Disorders: Differences in Use of Coronary Angiography, Coronary Revascularization, and Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator and Survival.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2019Article
- Genetic variants in 5-HTTLPR, BDNF, HTR1A, COMT, and FKBP5 and risk for treated depression after cancer diagnosis.Depression and anxiety · 2017Article
- Antidepressant use in suicides: a case-control study from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Italy, 2005-2014.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2017Article
- Inflammation and depression: combined use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and NSAIDs or paracetamol and psychiatric outcomes.Brain and behavior · 2015Article
- Changes in the prescribing pattern of antidepressant drugs in elderly patients: an Italian, nationwide, population-based study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2014Article
- Trend in SSRI-SNRI antidepressants prescription over a 6-year period and predictors of poor adherence.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2013Article
- Danish physicians' preferences for prescribing escitalopram over citalopram and sertraline to treatment-naïve patients: a national, register-based study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2013Article
- Cost-effectiveness evaluation of escitalopram in major depressive disorder in Italy.ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeOur purpose was to explore antidepressant drug (AD) prescribing patterns in Italian primary care.
methodsOverall, 276 Italian general practitioners (GPs) participated in this prospective study, recruiting patients >18 years who started AD therapy during the enrolment period (January 2007 to June 2008). During visits at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months, data about patients' characteristics and AD treatments were collected by the GPs. Discontinuation rate among new users of AD classes [i.e., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI); tricyclics (TCAs); other ADs) were compared. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of AD discontinuation.
resultsSSRIs were the most frequently prescribed ADs (N = 1,037; 75.3 %), especially paroxetine and escitalopram. SSRIs were more likely to be prescribed because of depressive disorders (80 %), and by GPs (51.1 %) rather than psychiatrists (31.8 %). Overall, 27.5 % (N = 378) of AD users discontinued therapy during the first year, mostly in the first 3 months (N = 242; 17.6 %), whereas 185 (13.4 %) were lost to follow-up. SSRI users showed the highest discontinuation rate (29 %). In patients with depressive disorders, younger age, psychiatrist-based diagnosis, and treatment started by GPs were independent predictors of SSRI discontinuation.
conclusionsIn Italy, ADs-especially SSRIs-are widely prescribed by GPs because of depressive/anxiety disorders. Active monitoring of AD users in general practice might reduce the AD discontinuation rate.
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