Youth Antidepressant Prescribing Rose Faster After COVID-19 Outbreak

MONDAY, Feb. 26, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- For adolescents and young adults, antidepressant dispensing was increasing before the COVID-19 outbreak and increased even more thereafter, according to a study published online Feb. 26 in Pediatrics.

Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, and colleagues identified antidepressant prescriptions dispensed to U.S. individuals aged 12 to 25 years from 2016 to 2022 to examine the monthly antidepressant dispensing rate.

The researchers found a 66.3 percent increase in the monthly antidepressant dispensing rate between January 2016 and December 2022, from 2,575.9 to 4,284.8. This rate increased by 17.0 percent per month before March 2020. There was no association seen for the COVID-19 outbreak with a level change, but a slope increase of 10.8 per month was seen. From March 2020 onward, the monthly antidepressant-dispensing rate increased 63.5 percent faster compared with beforehand. Among females aged 12 to 17 years and 18 to 25 years, this rate increased 129.6 and 56.5 percent faster, respectively, from March 2020 onward compared with beforehand. In contrast, a level decrease was seen among males aged 12 to 17 years, while no level or slope change was seen among males aged 18 to 25 years.

"Future research should investigate the degree to which this increase was driven by changes in mental health, changes in access to mental health care, and changes in treatment patterns for mental health conditions," the authors write.

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