ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2014
Antidepressant prescribing in five European countries: application of common definitions to assess the prevalence, clinical observations, and methodological implications.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 162 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trends in age-sex-specific prevalence and incidence of antidepressant dispensation in the Nordic countries: a systematic review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- Replication and reproducibility issues in the relationship between C-reactive protein and depression: A systematic review and focused meta-analysis.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2018Pooled it
- Effect of single doses of citalopram and reboxetine on urethral pressure: A randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled three-period crossover study in healthy women.Neurourology and urodynamics · 2022Trial
- One-week escitalopram intake alters the excitation-inhibition balance in the healthy female brain.Human brain mapping · 2022Trial
- Use of serotonin reuptake inhibitors and risk of subsequent bone loss in a nationwide population-based cohort study.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Antidepressant prescriptions and adherence in primary care in India: Insights from a cluster randomized control trial.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Learning to experience side effects after antidepressant intake - Results from a randomized, controlled, double-blind study.Psychopharmacology · 2017Trial
- Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes: Analysis From the UK, Norway, and Sweden.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2026Article
- Antidepressant prescribing pattern in Croatia: a retrospective, longitudinal study from 2017 to 2022.Croatian medical journal · 2026Article
- Antidepressant prescribing trends for adult patients in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic: systematic review.BJPsych open · 2026Review
- The Link Between Depression, Analgesia Usage and Function in Osteoarthritis: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis from the Osteoarthritis Initiative Cohort.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Association between concomitant use of direct oral anticoagulants with antidepressants and an increased risk of hemorrhage: analysis of the food and drug administration adverse event reporting system database.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Psychotherapy initiation is associated with discontinuation of psychotropic medications without dose escalation: a ten-year real-world cohort study (2014-2024).Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- International Trends in Antidepressant Consumption: a 10-year Comparative Analysis (2010-2020).The Psychiatric quarterly · 2025Observational
- Risk of depression and anxiety in 7.302 patients with sarcoidosis: a nationwide cohort study.Sarcoidosis, vasculitis, and diffuse lung diseases : official journal of WASOG · 2024Article
- Improving patient experience for people prescribed medicines with a risk of dependence or withdrawal: co-designed solutions using experience based co-design.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Article
- Antidepressant use in low- middle- and high-income countries: a World Mental Health Surveys report.Psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Utilization of psychotropic medicines in Romania during 1998-2018.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
24 authors at 9 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeDrug utilization studies have applied different methods to various data types to describe medication use, which hampers comparisons across populations. The aim of this study was to describe the time trends in antidepressant prescribing in the last decade and the variation in the prevalence, calculated in a uniform manner, in seven European electronic healthcare databases.
methodsAnnual prevalence per 10,000 person-years (PYs) was calculated for 2001-2009 in databases from Spain, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom (UK), and the Netherlands. Prevalence data were stratified according to age, sex, antidepressant type (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors [SSRIs] or tricyclic antidepressants [TCAs]) and major indications.
resultsThe age- and sex-standardized prevalence was lowest in the two Dutch (391 and 429 users per 10,000 PYs) and highest in the two UK (913 and 936 users per 10,000 PYs) populations in 2008. The prevalence in the Danish, German, and Spanish populations was 637, 618, and 644 users per 10,000 PY respectively. Antidepressants were prescribed most often in 20- to 60-year-olds in the two UK populations compared with the others. SSRIs were prescribed more often than TCAs in all except the German population. In the majority of countries we observed an increasing trend of antidepressant prescribing over time. Two different methods identifying recorded indications yielded different ranges of proportions of patients recorded with the specific indication (15-57% and 39-69% for depression respectively).
conclusionDespite applying uniform methods, variations in the prevalence of antidepressant prescribing were obvious in the different populations. Database characteristics and clinical factors may both explain these variations.
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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.