The use of antidepressants has increased over the last two decades in North America.

The use of antidepressants has increased over the last two decades in North America.
Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Antidepressants prescribed for many people not depressed

A surprising 45 per cent of people taking antidepressants are not depressed, according to a McGill University study of medical records. Doctors are prescribing these drugs for conditions other than what they were designed for such as anxiety, insomnia, pain and panic disorders, sexual dysfunction, eating disorders and hot flashes experienced in menopause.

Unnecessary side effects a concern

“My concern would be that these patients are on these drugs unnecessarily and perhaps experiencing side effects that they don’t need to be because these drugs aren’t really working for the indications that they’re taking them for,” said Jenna Wong, PhD candidate at McGill’s department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and lead author of the study.

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Lead Author Jenna Wong says we don’t know what are the health outcomes for people taking antidepressants for conditions other than depression.
Lead Author Jenna Wong says we don’t know what are the health outcomes for people taking antidepressants for conditions other than depression.

Marketing may be why

The study did not look at why doctors are prescribing antidepressants for unapproved or off-label uses. But Wong thinks it might have to do with aggressive marketing by some pharmaceutical companies. While the study only looked at patients in the province of Quebec, she thinks the results would be similar across Canada.

Effects unknown

“There needs to be more awareness among patients and physicians perhaps that that these different uses are occurring and many of them are not backed by scientific evidence,” says Wong. She also hopes this study will more scientific research to find out what are the health effects of these off-label uses of antidepressants.

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