Antidepressants: general practitioners' opinions and clinical practice

• Published in: Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica Vol. 113; no. 6; pp. 460 - 467
• Main Authors: Rambelomanana, S., Depont, F., Forest, K., Hébert, G., Blazejewski, S., Fourrier-Réglat, A., Molimard, M., Moore, N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-06-2006; Blackwell
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Antidepressants; antidepressive agents; Antidepressive Agents - classification; Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-Sectional Studies; Depression; Depression - drug therapy; depressive disorder; drug; Drug Prescriptions - statistics & numerical data; Drug therapy; Expert Testimony; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Medical treatment; Middle Aged; Mood disorders; Neuropharmacology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; physician's practice patterns; Physicians; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - statistics & numerical data; prescriptions; Primary care; Primary Health Care; Psychiatry; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology; treatment outcome; France; Mood disorder; antidepressive agents; Psychotropic; Physician; Depression; dépression; treatment outcome; drug; Chemotherapy; physician's practice patterns; Treatment; Medical prescription; Professional practice; depressive disorder; Antidepressant agent; prescriptions
• ISSN: 0001-690X; 1600-0447
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00793.x

Objective:  To describe and compare general practitioners’ (GPs) opinions on antidepressant drugs and their prescriptions to depressed patients.
Method:  Between November 2000 and July 2001 a representative sample of French GPs was asked their opinion of the 15 most prescribed antidepressants, and then to describe the treatments of the current depressive episode of four depressive patients each, their changes and the reasons thereof.
Results:  One hundred and eighty‐one GPs and 778 patients participated. The best‐ranked antidepressants by the GPs were paroxetine, fluoxetine, sertraline and clomipramine for efficacy, and paroxetine, tianeptine, sertraline and fluoxetine for tolerability. In patients, the drugs most often prescribed were fluoxetine, paroxetine, and sertraline. Those least often stopped for intolerance were moclobemide (0%), dosulepine (0%), venlafaxine (4.5%) and citalopram (5.0%), and maprotiline (0%), citalopram (1.7%) and venlafaxine (2.3%) for lack of efficacy. The best predictor for prescription of antidepressants was the GPs’ overall ranking, itself depending on opinions of the tolerability and efficacy of the drug. However, opinions of tolerability and efficacy were not related to the rates of treatment discontinuation for intolerability or inefficacy.
Conclusion:  Prescriber opinion does not seem related to actual product performance.