Study: US antidepressant use doubles

A study conducted by Columbia University researchers shows that antidepressants are now one of the most commonly prescribed classes of drug in the United States. The use of antidepressant medications has become so common in the country that the drugs have surpassed blood pressure pills as the most prescribed drugs.

The study’s lead author Mark Olfson, M.D., M.P.H., of Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, along with Steven C. Marcus, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, analyzed data from two Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys.

The surveys, conducted in the year 1996 and 2005, were sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which provides national estimates about health care usage and costs. In the 1996 survey, a total of 18,993 individuals age 6 and older were included, while the 2005 survey included 28,445 individuals.

Antidepressant use zooms

After analyzing the data, Olfson and Marcus found that the rate of antidepressant usage increased from 5.84 percent to 10.12 percent or from an estimated 13.3 million to 27 million individuals during the same period studied, from 1996 to 2005.

"I expected there to be an increase [in antidepressant use], but I didn't expect the increase to be as large as we actually found," says Olfson. ''Ten percent of the population is being treated with an antidepressant during the course of a year," he adds.

The authors write: “Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all socio-demographic groups examined, except African Americans, who had comparatively low rates of use in both years (1996, 3.61 percent; 2005, 4.51 percent). Although antidepressant treatment increased for Hispanics, it remained comparatively low (1996, 3.72 percent; 2005, 5.21 percent).”

According to the study, half of the antidepressant users take these medications for back pain, nerve pain, fatigue, sleep difficulties or other problems.

Psychotherapy declines

Even though more and more Americans are taking antidepressants, their use of psychotherapy or "talk therapy" has sharply declined, the research shows.

Among users of antidepressants, the percentage participating in psychotherapy fell from 31.5 percent in 1996 to 19.8 percent in 2005, the study says. Further, it shows that about 80 percent of patients were treated by doctors other than psychiatrists.

"Together with an increase in the number of antidepressant prescriptions per antidepressant user [an average of 5.6 vs. 6.93 per year], these broad trends suggest that antidepressant treatment is occurring within a clinical context that places greater emphasis on pharmacologic rather than psychological dimensions of care," the authors write.

Further, the research found that spending on direct-to-consumer antidepressant ads increased from $32 million to $122 million during the study period.

The findings are published in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.