Antidepressant medication use for primary care patients with and without medical comorbidities: a national electronic health record (EHR) network study.
BACKGROUND
Because comorbid depression can complicate medical conditions (eg, diabetes), physicians may treat depression more aggressively in patients who have these conditions. This study examined whether primary care physicians prescribe antidepressant medications more often and in higher doses for persons with medical comorbidities.


METHODS
This secondary data analysis of electronic health record data was conducted in the Centricity Health Care User Research Network (CHURN), a national network of ambulatory practices that use a common outpatient electronic health record. Participants included 209 family medicine and general internal medicine providers in 40 primary care CHURN offices in 17 US states. Patients included adults with a new episode of depression that had been diagnosed during the period October 2006 through July 2007 (n = 1513). Prescription of antidepressant medication and doses of antidepressant medication were compared for patients with and without 6 comorbid conditions: diabetes, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer.


RESULTS
20.7% of patients had at least one medical comorbidity whereas 5.8% had multiple comorbidities. Overall, 77% of depressed patients were prescribed antidepressant medication. After controlling for age and sex, patients with multiple comorbidities were less likely to be prescribed medication (adjusted odds ratio, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.35-0.96), but there was no significant difference by individual comorbidities. Patients with cerebrovascular disease were less likely to be prescribed a full dose of medication (adjusted odds ratio, 0.26; 95% CI, 0.08-0.88), but there were no differences for other comorbidities or for multiple comorbidities, and there was no difference for any comorbidities in the prescription of minimally effective doses.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with new episodes of depression who present to a primary care practice are not treated more aggressively if they have medical comorbidities. In fact, patients with multiple comorbidities are treated somewhat less aggressively.
Gill
James M
JM
Delaware Valley Outcomes Research, Newark, DE 19711, USA. gillj@dvoresearch.com
Klinkman
Michael S
MS
Chen
Ying Xia
YX
D000328:Adult; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States
D000928:Antidepressive Agents