ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2026
Initiation of antidepressant medicines in Swedish patients diagnosed with COVID-19: a registry-based cohort study.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeWhile antidepressant therapy is a common treatment for post-COVID mental health symptoms, little is known about initiations of antidepressants in patients after COVID-19 and how sociodemographic factors modify this risk. This study investigated whether adults infected by COVID-19 were more likely to initiate antidepressant therapy compared with non-infected individuals, and examined the influence of socioeconomic factors on initiation patterns.
methodsWe conducted a nationwide registry-based cohort study using data from the SCIFI-PEARL project, including all adults (≥ 18 years of age) in Sweden from 1 March 2020 to 31 March 2022. Exposed individuals had a COVID-19 infection, and unexposed individuals were matched 1:1 by sex and birth year. Stratified Cox regression models were used to estimate the risk of antidepressant (ATC: N06A) initiation, adjusting for socioeconomic status, and Charlson Comorbidity Index.
resultsThe cohort included 2,666,510 individuals (1,333,255 exposed and unexposed). Exposed individuals had a 16% higher risk of initiating antidepressants compared with unexposed individuals after full adjustment (HR: 1.16, 95% CI:1.15-1.17). The risk reduced by roughly 43% when we adjusted for post-index healthcare contacts as potential mediator. Higher risks were observed for unmarried (HR: 1.14, 95% CI:1.13-1.16), or unemployed/retired (HR 1.14, 95% CI: 1.13-1.16) individuals. Conversely, higher educational level and being born outside Sweden were associated with lower risk of initiation of antidepressant, (HR:0.70, 95% CI:0.68-0.71) and (HR:0.92, 95% CI: 0.91-0.94), respectively.
conclusionsCOVID-19 exposure was associated with an increased risk of initiating antidepressant therapy, particularly among socioeconomically vulnerable groups. Differences by education and immigrant status suggest disparities in access to healthcare.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.