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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Antidepressant drug prescribing among elderly subjects
— a population-based study | | Author(s) | Mauro Percudani, Corrado Barbui, Ida Fortino |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 20, no 2, February 2005 |
| Pages | pp 113-118 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Depression ; Drugs ; General practice ; Italy. |
| Annotation | The prevalence and distribution of antidepressant prescribing in Lombardy, a region of northern Italy with more than one and half million older residents, was examined using the Regional Administrative Database. The database includes all prescriptions reimbursed by the National Health System in the population living in this region. All antidepressant prescriptions dispensed to subjects aged 65+ during 2000 were extracted and prevalence data calculated by dividing antidepressant users by the total number of male and female residents in each age group. In the 12 months surveyed, 153,706 subjects were dispensed with one or more antidepressant prescription, a prevalence of 9.49 subjects per 100 inhabitants. Although the proportion of chronic users decreased slightly with age, more than 35% of those aged over 85 were moderate or chronic antidepressant users. General practitioners (GPs) issued most of these prescriptions, and most antidepressant users were also dispensed agents for medical disorders. The very high rate of antidepressant drug prescribing detected in late life suggests the need to characterise these subjects in terms of medical and psychiatric characteristics, need and quality of life. It also suggest the need for pragmatic clinical trials carried out in the general practice, with the aim of assessing whether antidepressants are effective in these conditions. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050221202 A |
| Classmark | ENR: LLD: L5: 76V |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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