Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Feb;59(559):81-7.
doi: 10.3399/bjgp09X395067.

Initiation of antidepressant therapy: do patients follow the GP's prescription?

Erica C G van Geffen  1 , Helga Gardarsdottir, Rolf van Hulten, Liset van Dijk, Antoine C G Egberts, Eibert R Heerdink
Affiliations

Initiation of antidepressant therapy: do patients follow the GP's prescription?

Erica C G van Geffen et al. Br J Gen Pract. 2009 Feb.

Abstract

Background: The question whether patients actually start drug taking after having received a first antidepressant prescription is often overlooked.

Aim: To determine the incidence of patients who do not fill or fill only a single antidepressant prescription at the pharmacy, and to identify associated patient characteristics.

Design of study: Retrospective study linking a general practice to a pharmacy dispensing database.

Setting: General practice in the Netherlands.

Study population: patients who received a first-time antidepressant prescription from a GP. Three patient groups were identified: patients who did not fill the prescription (non-fillers); patients who filled only a single prescription (single Rx-fillers); and patients who filled at least two consecutive prescriptions. Non-fillers and single Rx-fillers were combined into a group of decliners.

Results: Of all 965 patients, 41 (4.2%) did not fill the prescription, and 229 (23.7%) filled only a single prescription. Patients who consulted their GP for a non-specific indication, rather than for depression, anxiety, panic, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, were almost three times more likely (odds ratio [OR] = 2.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.8 to 3.9) to decline treatment. Further, the risk of declining was almost fivefold higher (OR = 4.8, 95% CI = 2.1 to 11.3) in non-Western immigrants, and almost twofold higher (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.2 to 2.8) in patients >60 years of age.

Conclusion: Over one in four patients who receive a first-time antidepressant prescription decline treatment; they either do not initiate drug taking or do not persist with antidepressant use for longer than 2 weeks.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Donovan JL, Blake DR. Patient non-compliance: deviance or reasoned decision-making? Soc Sci Med. 1992;34(5):81–87. - PubMed
    1. Horne R, Weinman J. Patients' beliefs about prescribed medicines and their role in adherence to treatment in chronic physical illness. J Psychosom Res. 1999;47(6):555–567. - PubMed
    1. Bull SA, Hunkeler EM, Lee JY, et al. Discontinuation or switching selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors. Ann Pharmacother. 2002;36(4):578–584. - PubMed
    1. Lin EHB, Von Korff M, Katon W, et al. The role of the primary care physician in patients' adherence to antidepressant therapy. Med Care. 1995;33(1):67–74. - PubMed
    1. Demyttenaere K, Enzlin P, Dewé W, et al. Compliance with antidepressants in a primary care setting, 1: beyond lack of efficacy and adverse events. J Clin Psychiatry. 2001;62(suppl 22):30–33. - PubMed

Substances