title: Factors associated with the prescription of antidepressive medication to breast cancer patients.
abstract: We evaluated factors associated with use of antidepressant medication subsequent to a diagnosis of breast cancer. We also evaluated the effect of participation in a cancer rehabilitation program on use of antidepressants.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a register-based cohort study of 1 247 women with breast cancer diagnosed between 1998 and 2006 who attended a week-long rehabilitation program and a comparison group of 2 903 women who did not attend the program matched through the registers of the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group. The associations between breast cancer-related, treatment-related, and sociodemographic factors and use of antidepressants were evaluated in multivariate Cox proportional hazard models separated on use of antidepressants before diagnosis of breast cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean follow-up for the 4 150 women in the study was 3.3 years (5-95% range, 0.3-7.0 years) and 1 020 (25%) were users of antidepressants after diagnosis of breast cancer. Among women who had not used antidepressants before their breast cancer, the diagnosis of a new primary cancer increased the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) to 3.34 (95% CI, 1.50-7.76), and recurrence of breast cancer increased the HR for first use of antidepressants to 2.56 (95% CI, 1.86-3.52). Unemployment was associated significantly with use of antidepressants, whereas having no children living at home, lower income, and the number of tumor-positive axillary lymph nodes were of borderline significance. No effect of the rehabilitation program was observed on first use of antidepressants after breast cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Diagnosis of a new cancer or recurrence of breast cancer considerably increased the rate of use of antidepressants. Sociodemographic rather than disease- or treatment-related characteristics at the time of diagnosis were associated with first use of antidepressants after a breast cancer diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Copenhagen, Denmark. suppli@cancer.dk
authors.forename: Nis P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Suppli
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Deltour
authors.forename: Lars H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Damkjaer
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: Anders B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Niels T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Kroman
authors.forename: Christoffer
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.forename: Susanne O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Dalton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055656:Prescriptions; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents