Prescribing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, anxiolytics, and sedative-hypnotics by general practitioners in the Netherlands: A multivariate analysis

The Utilization of Antidepressants and Benzodiazepines among People with Major Depression in Canada

“…14 Despite this, the use of BDZs in conjunction with ADs is common, with prevalence ranging from 9.8% to 62.9%. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] These studies [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] identified potential factors that increase concurrent use of BDZs and ADs, such as 1) type of AD (SSRIs), 2) females, 3) older age, 4) presence of comorbid anxiety, and 5) seeing a psychiatrist. However, none of these studies [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] examined utilization of ADs and BDZs among people with past-year MDEs.…”

Health economic evaluations of antidepressants: A review

“…The most often replicated finding from actual clinical practice has consistently shown that initiation of antidepressant therapy with fluoxetine results in equal or lower total direct health care expenditures relative to patients who initiate therapy on sertraline or paroxetine McCombs et al, 1998;Hylan et al, 1998a). Moreover, studies also suggest fluoxetine is more reliably associated with lengths and patterns of antidepressant therapy (Gregor et al, 1994;Navarro et al, 1995;Rascati, 1995;Gregor et al, 1996;Thompson et al, 1996;Hylan et al, 1998b;Pathiyal et al, 1997;Montejo et al, 1998) consistent with recommended standards of care (World Health Organization Mental Health Collaborating Centers, 1989;Paykel and Priest, 1992;Montgomery et al, 1993;American Psychiatric Association, 1993;AHCPR, 1993). Further research is needed to validate whether these differences are reproducible across other practice settings and other study methods.…”

“…In addition, just as pharmacokinetic or in vitro receptor affinities vary within the class, potential differences in patterns of use also emerge among the SSRIs. For example, comparative studies of individual SSRIs report differences in therapy duration and rates of switching and augmentation (Thompson et al, 1996;McCombs et al, 1998), upward dose titration (Gregor et al, 1994;Navarro et al, 1995;Truter and Kotze, 1996;Bingefors et al, 1997;Hylan et al, 1998b;Montejo et al, 1998), the likelihood of discontinuation symptomatology (LeJoyeux et al, 1996;Coupland et al, 1996), and concomitant anxiolytic and sedative-hypnotic use (Rascati, 1995;Gregor et al, 1996;Pathiyal et al, 1997;Hylan et al, 1997). Adjustments to initial therapy (e.g., dose titration, switching, addition of concomitant medications), may signal a potential delay in achieving optimal therapeutic benefit and may have economic as well as clinical consequences (Thompson et al, 1996).…”

Psychoactive drug prescribing by Dutch child and adolescent psychiatrists

“…As a result of the large consumption of paroxetine by adults, a quarter to one-third of the child psychiatrists reported preferring the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) paroxetine for the treatment of depressive disorder, anxiety disorder and OCD [13]. Recent warnings against the use of SSRIs and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) in children because of an increased risk of suicide show that the use of these psychoactive drugs in children may be accompanied by unknown risks.…”