Making new choices about antidepressants in Australia: the long view 1975-2002

To examine trends in types of antidepressant medications prescribed in Australia between 1975 and 2002.

Sales data from the Australian pharmaceutical industry were used to examine trends in overall antidepressant prescribing and changes in the types of antidepressants prescribed between 1975 and 2002.

Antidepressant sales were expressed as defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1000 people per day, using the estimated Australian population for each year obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Average annual growth in the sales of antidepressants was 1.1% per year from 1975 to 1990, after which growth rose steeply to reach 29% in 1995. By 2002 the rate of growth had slowed to 6.6%. Eighty per cent of total sales were accounted for by four drugs in 1975, 1980 and 1985; five in 1990; seven drugs in 1995 and 2000; and six drugs in 2001 and 2002.

The rapid growth in antidepressant prescribing that was characteristic of the early 1990s, and reflected the emergence of new classes of agents, did not continue into the late 1990s. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors now dominate antidepressant prescribing in Australia.