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KMID : 1011320110040010005
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Journal of Pharmacoepidemiology and Risk Management
2011 Volume.4 No. 1 p.5 ~ p.14
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Prescribing Patterns of Antidepressant for the Korean Elderly Depressive Patients in Primary Care Clinics
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Kim Ye-Jee
Choi Nam-Kyong
Jung Sun-Young
Seong Jong-Mi
Lee Joong-Yub
Park Byung-Joo
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Abstract
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Objective: To evaluate prescribing patterns of antidepressant (AD) for the Korean elderly depressive patients in primary care clinics.
Methods: We used health insurance claims records from the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service database. Inclusion criteria of this study were outpatient department visit, diagnosis of depression without psychotic disorders in primary care clinics between January 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006. The geographic distribution of study subjects and AD prescribing patterns of regional area and doctor’s specialty were analyzed. Chi-square tests were used to test of independence in AD prescribing patterns by region and doctor’s specialty.
Results: Total number of claims for AD prescription was 550,106 for 82,293 elderly patients. Female (72.7%) and patients aged 65 to 69 years (39.8%) were more frequently prescribed group. Proportion of study subjects was relatively high in Chungcheong-do (20.9‰), Jella-do and Jeju-do (20.3‰), Deajeon (19.4‰) and Gwangju (18.6‰). Of all the AD prescriptions, 84.0% was monotherapy, tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) (66.4%), atypical ADs (16.0%) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) (15.4%) were frequently prescribed. In combination therapy regimen, co-prescription of TCA and atypical AD, TCA and SSRI, TCA and TCA had occupied 25.6%, 22.6%, 21.9%, respectively. The proportion of mono-drug regimen and combination regimen showed variability by regional area and doctor’s specialty (p＜0.01).
Conclusion: Overall 20.0‰ of elderly patients were prescribed ADs and large regional difference was found in prescription patterns of AD. There was a need for standardizing AD prescription for the Korean elderly depressive patients in primary care clinics.
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KEYWORD
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Drug utilization review, Aged, Depression, Antidepressant
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