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Published on: February 22, 2018
Drug prescriptions of adults with adolescent depression in a community sample
Aivar Päären1, Lars von Knorring, Ulf Jonsson
1Department of Neuroscience, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. aivar@telia.com
Purpose:
The prescription drugs have, to our knowledge, not been much studied in epidemiological samples with long-term follow-up. Accordingly, our purpose was to analyze the use of prescription drugs in adults with adolescent depression.
Methods:
A population-based cohort of adolescents (n = 2465) was screened for the presence of depressive symptoms and diagnosed according to a structured interview. Totally, 362 individuals were identified as depressed and compared with 250 non-depressed controls. The prescription drugs were evaluated at the age of 29-31 years from a register kept by the National Health and Welfare Board.
Results:
The formerly depressed females received significantly more prescription drugs, such as antidepressants, antiepileptics, antibacterials, antimycotics, and antihistamines for systemic use as well as other drugs, compared with controls (15.6 ± 27.4 vs 8.2 ± 7.4 recipes, p < 0.001). Formerly depressed males did not differ from controls regarding prescription drugs.
Conclusions:
The females but not males with adolescent depression subsequently received more prescription drugs than non-depressed peers. Depressed female adolescents received more psychotropic and non-psychotropic drugs later in life compared to the non-depressed. This might be as a result of physical illnesses, different treatment-seeking behaviors, or somatizing reactions.
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