Are your prescriptions contributing to depression?

Hello. I’m Dr Charles Vega, and I am a clinical professor of family medicine at the University of California at Irvine. Welcome to Medscape Morning Report, our 1-minute news story for primary care.

Depression is one of the most common chronic illnesses affecting adults, but can physicians be contributing to the prevalence of depression? An analysis of prescribing habits suggests that the answer is yes.

A new analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey concluded that more than one third of US adults used a prescription medication that had depression as a potential adverse effect in the previous 30 days.

Concomitant use of three or more of these drugs occurred in almost 10% of adults. And use of meds causing potential suicidal symptoms also increased, with almost a quarter of adults using one of these agents.

Commonly used medications with this adverse effect include beta-blockers, proton pump inhibitors, analgesics, and hormonal contraceptives. The number of medications associated with depression as an adverse event was correlated with a higher prevalence of depression.

This study serves as a reminder that we should all be considering the potential risk for depression when we write routine prescriptions.

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