Martinez-Cengotitabengoa Monica, Sanchez-Martinez Monike, Sanchez-Martinez Andoni, Long-Martinez Daniel, Dunford Daisy, Revuelta Paula, Echevarria Enrique, Calvo Begoña
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
Osakidetza Basque Health Service, 48902 Barakaldo, Spain.
Healthcare (Basel). 2025 Feb 26;13(5):502. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13050502.
It is well established that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of depressive symptoms in the general population. So far, there are no studies analyzing how this pandemic has affected the prescription of antidepressants. We retrospectively estimated the incidence of new cases of depression by analyzing new prescriptions of antidepressive agents over a period of 6 years distributed in three periods of 2 years each: pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic, running from March 2018 to February 2024. This research was conducted in a healthcare area with 130,000 individuals in Spain. New prescriptions for antidepressants increased significantly during the pandemic and even more in the post-pandemic period, with the increase being greater in women than in men. During the pandemic period, the increased prescription for antidepressants was specifically due to an increase among people under 20 years of age, while in the post-pandemic period, the increase has occurred in all age groups. In the subgroup analysis, we found that the pandemic period exclusively affected the number of women aged 40 or under who were prescribed a new antidepressant, while in the post-pandemic period, there has been a significant increase in the number of both male and female patients with a new antidepressant in all age groups compared to the two previous periods, except in young men aged up to 20 years. Our study highlights the importance of addressing the mental health of the population in parallel with addressing physical problems and adapting health systems accordingly.
众所周知，新冠疫情增加了普通人群中抑郁症状的发生率。到目前为止，尚无研究分析此次疫情如何影响抗抑郁药的处方情况。我们通过分析2018年3月至2024年2月期间分三个阶段（每个阶段2年）分布的6年抗抑郁药新处方，回顾性估计了抑郁症新病例的发生率。这项研究在西班牙一个拥有13万人口的医疗保健区域进行。疫情期间抗抑郁药的新处方显著增加，在疫情后时期增加得更多，女性的增加幅度大于男性。在疫情期间，抗抑郁药处方增加尤其归因于20岁以下人群的增加，而在疫情后时期，所有年龄组都出现了增加。在亚组分析中，我们发现疫情期间仅影响了40岁及以下新开抗抑郁药处方的女性数量，而在疫情后时期，与前两个时期相比，所有年龄组中开具新抗抑郁药处方的男性和女性患者数量均显著增加，但20岁及以下的年轻男性除外。我们的研究强调了在解决身体问题的同时关注人群心理健康并相应调整卫生系统的重要性。
