ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2023
Prevalence, trends, and individual patterns of long-term antidepressant medication use in the adult Swiss general population.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) after stopping antidepressants: a systematic review with meta-narrative synthesis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Short-Term and Late-Term Effects of Psilocybin on Symptoms in Major Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Long-Term Antidepressant Use and Dementia Risk: A Propensity Score-Matched Study of Swiss Older Adults, with an Anticholinergic-Specific Analysis.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2026Article
- Social deprivation in adolescence and risk of depression in young adulthood: a longitudinal analysis of linked administrative data from Northern Ireland.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Patients' Perspectives on Antidepressant Discontinuation and the Pharmacists' Role.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2026Article
- Characteristics and comorbidities of patients on opioid agonist therapy in Switzerland: A descriptive analysis of the nationwide SAMMSU cohort.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- The evolution of SSRI research: trajectories of knowledge domains across four decades.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Medicating to practice: a mixed-methods study of Ukrainian psychotherapists in a shared trauma context.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Increasing Prevalence of Long-Term Antidepressant Use in Australia: A Retrospective Observational Study.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2025Observational
- Factors associated with drug-drug interactions involving citalopram in the UK Biobank.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- Uncovering antidepressant prescription patterns: a three-year analysis of outpatient trends.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The 3 Ds: Depression, Dysbiosis, and Clostridiodes difficile.Advances in therapy · 2024Review
- Potential deprescribing indications for antidepressants between 2012 and 2019: repeated cross-sectional analysis in two Scottish health boards.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeAntidepressant use has increased in many European countries, mostly driven by longer treatment duration. The aim of this study was to provide prevalence rates of long-term users of antidepressants for the Swiss population over the last decade and to investigate associated factors for longer use.
methodsWe examined the prevalence rates of individuals with at least one prescription for antidepressants using longitudinal health claims data for 2013 to 2021. We defined short- (< one year), medium- (one-two years), and long-term users (> two years) for 2015 to 2019. We applied a binary logistic regression model to investigate the effects of population (gender, age, area of living, language, health insurance plan, and nursing home) and treatment characteristics (psychiatric or psychotherapeutic care) on long-term compared to short- and medium-term users in 2019.
resultsIn 2021, 9% of the Swiss population (n = 770,698) received at least one antidepressant prescription, which remained stable since 2013. In 2019, the proportion of long-term users was 57.4%, with steady increase since 2015. The proportion of medium- and short-term users has decreased. Older age, being a woman, living in an urban area, living in a nursing home, being enrolled in a standard care plan, and receiving psychiatric or psychotherapeutic care were factors positively associated with being a long-term user.
conclusionThe proportion of long-term users in Switzerland is high and steadily increasing. Given the ongoing debate about the confounding effects of relapse and withdrawal, more research is needed to investigate longer use of antidepressants that could indicate overprescribing.
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