Antidepressant Medication Prescribing Practices for Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder

The purpose of this study was to describe the prescribing practices of clinicians for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

This population-based, descriptive study of insured patients (N=54,107) identified people who were 18 years or older, had a claim for MDD, had at least one prescription for an antidepressant medication in 2013, and had continuous insurance coverage during the study period. Prescription claims were evaluated to determine the most commonly prescribed antidepressant medication and most common dose.

The three most commonly prescribed antidepressant medications were citalopram (N=11,995, 22.2%), sertraline (N=10,791, 19.9%), and trazodone (N=9,501, 17.6%). The most common daily doses were 20 mg citalopram (N=6,304, 52.6%), 50 mg sertraline (N=4,173, 38.7%), and 100 mg trazodone (N=3,220, 33.9%).

This is the first report of its kind that provides drug- and dosage-level details to demonstrate that antidepressant prescribing in clinical practice is largely within recommended guidelines.