Prevalence of and factors related to the use of antidepressants and benzodiazepines: results from the Singapore Mental Health Study

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Mythily Subramaniam¹  Vincent YF He²  Janhavi A Vaingankar²  Siow Ann Chong²  Edimansyah Abdin² 

[1] Research Division, Institute of Mental Health, Buangkok Green Medical Park, 10 Buangkok View, 539747, Singapore, Singapore;Research Division, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore, Singapore;

关键词: Antidepressant;    Benzodiazepine;    Major depressive disorder;    Alcohol use disorder;    Survey;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-13-231

 received in 2013-01-15, accepted in 2013-09-18,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPrescription and use of antidepressants and benzodiazepines are common in the general population. Prescription of psychotropic drugs is a complex process: patient, physician and healthcare characteristics mediate, interact and influence it. The current study aimed to establish the prevalence and factors associated with the use of antidepressants (ADs) and benzodiazepines (BZDs) in Singapore.MethodsThe Singapore Mental Health Study (SMHS) was a nationally representative survey of Singapore Residents aged 18 years and above. Face-to-face interviews were conducted from December 2009 to December 2010. The diagnoses of mental disorders were established using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 3.0 (CIDI-3.0). The pharmacoepidemiology section was used to collect information on medication use.ResultsThe overall prevalence estimates for ADs and BZDs use during the 12 months prior to the interview were 1.1% and 1.2% respectively. In all, 2.0% had used ADs and/or BZDs. ‘Help seeking for emotional or mental health problems’ was the most important predictor for the use of ADs and BZDs—help seekers were much more likely to use ADs (adjusted OR: 31.62, 95% CI: 13.36–74.83) and more likely to use BZDs than non-help seekers in the previous 12 months (adjusted OR: 34.38, 95% CI: 12.97–91.16). Only 27.6% of those with 12-month major depressive disorder (MDD) had sought formal medical help for their problems and ADs were being used by just over a quarter of this ‘help-seeking group’ (26.3%).ConclusionsWe found that the use of ADs and BZDs in our population was relatively low, and ‘help-seeking’ was the most important predictor of the use of ADs and BZDs. In concordance with research from other Western countries, use of ADs was low among those with 12-month MDD.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Subramaniam et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013