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Antidepressant use in low- middle- and high-income countries: a World Mental Health Surveys report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2021

Alan E. Kazdin Open the ORCID record for Alan E. Kazdin [Opens in a new window] ,
Chi-Shin Wu ,
Irving Hwang ,
Victor Puac-Polanco ,
Nancy A. Sampson ,
Ali Al-Hamzawi ,
Jordi Alonso ,
Laura Helena Andrade ,
Corina Benjet  and
José-Miguel Caldas-de-Almeida
...Show all authors
Alan E. Kazdin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Chi-Shin Wu
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital & College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
Irving Hwang
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Victor Puac-Polanco
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Nancy A. Sampson
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Ali Al-Hamzawi
Affiliation:
College of Medicine, Al-Qadisiya University, Diwaniya governorate, Al Diwaniyah, Iraq
Jordi Alonso
Affiliation:
Health Services Research Unit, IMIM-Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Barcelona, Spain CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain
Laura Helena Andrade
Affiliation:
Núcleo de Epidemiologia Psiquiátrica - LIM 23, Instituto de Psiquiatria Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Corina Benjet
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiologic and Psychosocial Research, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Mexico City, Mexico
José-Miguel Caldas-de-Almeida
Affiliation:
Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health and Chronic Diseases Research Center (CEDOC), NOVA Medical School | Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Giovanni de Girolamo
Affiliation:
IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy
Peter de Jonge
Affiliation:
Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Silvia Florescu
Affiliation:
National School of Public Health, Management and Development, Bucharest, Romania
Oye Gureje
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria
Josep M. Haro
Affiliation:
Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, CIBERSAM, Universitat de Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Meredith G. Harris
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Wacol QLD 4072, Australia
Elie G. Karam
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, St George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Beirut, Lebanon Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon
Georges Karam
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, St George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Beirut, Lebanon Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon
Viviane Kovess-Masfety
Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (EHESP), EA 4057, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France
Sing Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong
John J. McGrath
Affiliation:
Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Wacol QLD 4072, Australia Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4065, Australia National Centre for Register-based Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus V 8000, Denmark
Fernando Navarro-Mateu
Affiliation:
UDIF-SM, Servicio Murciano de Salud; IMIB-Arrixaca; CIBERESP-Murcia, Región de Murcia, Spain
Daisuke Nishi
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan
Bibilola D. Oladeji
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria
José Posada-Villa
Affiliation:
Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bogota, Colombia
Dan J. Stein
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health and South African Medical Council Research Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
T. Bedirhan Üstün
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
Daniel V. Vigo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Zahari Zarkov
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, National Center of Public Health and Analyses, Sofia, Bulgaria
Alan M. Zaslavsky
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Ronald C. Kessler
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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Abstract

Background

The most common treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) is antidepressant medication (ADM). Results are reported on frequency of ADM use, reasons for use, and perceived effectiveness of use in general population surveys across 20 countries.

Methods

Face-to-face interviews with community samples totaling n = 49 919 respondents in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys asked about ADM use anytime in the prior 12 months in conjunction with validated fully structured diagnostic interviews. Treatment questions were administered independently of diagnoses and asked of all respondents.

Results

3.1% of respondents reported ADM use within the past 12 months. In high-income countries (HICs), depression (49.2%) and anxiety (36.4%) were the most common reasons for use. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), depression (38.4%) and sleep problems (31.9%) were the most common reasons for use. Prevalence of use was 2–4 times as high in HICs as LMICs across all examined diagnoses. Newer ADMs were proportionally used more often in HICs than LMICs. Across all conditions, ADMs were reported as very effective by 58.8% of users and somewhat effective by an additional 28.3% of users, with both proportions higher in LMICs than HICs. Neither ADM class nor reason for use was a significant predictor of perceived effectiveness.

Conclusion

ADMs are in widespread use and for a variety of conditions including but going beyond depression and anxiety. In a general population sample from multiple LMICs and HICs, ADMs were widely perceived to be either very or somewhat effective by the people who use them.

Keywords

Antidepressant medicationsperceived effectivenessreasons for use
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , March 2023 , pp. 1583 - 1591
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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