Drug use pattern of antidepressant agents in psychiatric patients ? A prospective study

Background: Depression is a major public health problem. It causes clinically significant distress, impairment of social, occupational or other important areas of function. Objective: To evaluate the prescribing pattern of antidepressant agents in patients attending psychiatry OPD at a tertiary care teaching hospital. Method: A prospective study was carried out at psychiatry outpatient department (OPD) at VS General Hospital for 6 months. Patients who were prescribed any of the antidepressant medications irrespective of clinical indication either as monotherapy or in combination with other psychotherapeutic agents were included in the study. Result: Total 455 patients were enrolled for 6 months. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) was the most common diagnosis (85.93%). Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) was the most commonly prescribed drug group (56.7%) followed by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (46.8%). Amongst TCAs, imipramine was most frequently prescribed drug (65.89%) followed by sertraline (56.8%) among the SSRIs. Both the TCAs and newer antidepressants were prescribed with equal frequencies. Conclusion: Amongst antidepressants most frequently prescribed medication was imipramine followed by sertraline