ArticleAnnals of general psychiatry2015
How do GP practices and patient characteristics influence the prescription of antidepressants? A cross-sectional study.
Article in Annals of general psychiatry, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between GP characteristics and prescription patterns for antihypertensive drugs: a secondary data analysis in Normandy, France.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Is ageism among prescribers an influential factor in the management of depression in the elderly? A vignette-based study.Family practice · 2026Article
- Prepandemic psychotropic drug status in Portugal: a nationwide pharmacoepidemiological profile.Scientific reports · 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
- Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Mental Health, Psychological Distress and Psychotropic Medication Consumption in Spain: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUnder-prescription of antidepressants (ADs) among people meeting the criteria for major depressive episodes and excessive prescription in less symptomatic patients have been reported. The reasons influencing general practitioners' (GPs) prescription of ADs remain little explored. This study aimed at assessing the influence of GP and patient characteristics on AD prescription.
methodsThis cross-sectional study was based on a sample of 816 GPs working within the main health care insurance system in the Seine-Maritime district of France during 2010. Only GPs meeting the criteria for full-time GP practice were included. The ratio of AD prescription to overall prescription volume, a relative measure of AD prescription level, was calculated for each GP, using the defined daily dose (DDD) concept. Associations of this AD prescription ratio with GPs' age, gender, practice location, number of years of practice, number of days of sickness certificates prescribed, number of home visits and consultations, number and mean age of registered patients, mean patient income, and number of patients with a chronic condition were assessed using univariate and multivariate analysis.
resultsThe high prescribers were middle-aged (40-59) urban GPs, with a moderate number of consultations and fewer low-income and chronic patients. GPs' workload (e.g., volume of prescribed drug reimbursement and number of consultations) had no influence on the AD prescription ratio. GPs with more patients with risk factors for depression prescribed fewer ADs, however, which could suggest the medications were under-prescribed among the at-risk population.
conclusionsOur study described a profile of the typical higher AD prescriber that did not include heavy workload. In future work, a more detailed assessment of all biopsychosocial components of the consultation and other influences on GP behavior such as prior training would be useful to explain AD prescription in GP's practice.
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