Drug utilization pattern of anti depressants- a prospective cross sectional study in psychiatry outpatients from a tertiary care hospital

Background: Depression is a major public health problem as it can cause significant clinical distress. Major depression disorder (MDD) has been found to cause impairment of social, occupational or other areas of function. Antidepressant drugs being leading psycho tropics that are prescribed worldwide, their utilization in actual clinical practice, effectiveness and safety in real life situation need continuous study. Objective: Present study was carried out to evaluate the prescribing patterns of different antidepressants in psychiatry unit of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This prospective, observational and cross sectional study was conducted in the out-patient department (OPD) of General Psychiatry Unit of Sheri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital. A total of 600 cases were enrolled for the present study to investigate the prescribing pattern of antidepressants using a predesigned format out of which 543 subjects were taken for final results. Results: Depression was found to be the leading cause of psychiatric morbidity among the subjects accounting for 36% of the total study population. Females suffered from depression more than their male counterparts. The most common age group suffering from MDD was found to between 20-39 years comprising almost 50% of study population. Monotherapy was practiced more frequently than polytherapy with 2or more drugs. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) like escitalopram was found out to be the most preferred antidepressant chosen by the treating psychiatrists. Conclusion: Depression being the most common psychiatric disorder and this part of world is no exception to this. Among many other antidepressant groups, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are preferred over others because of their better side effect profile.