title: Physician prescribing patterns of innovative antidepressants in the United States: the case of MDD patients 1993-2007.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Innovative antidepressants such as SSRIs and SNRIs have been widely adopted. However, the differences in their adoption across patients' and physicians' characteristics, geographic regions, and insurance status need to be further explored. This study was trying to disentangle the patterns of physician antidepressant prescribing and medication choice for major depressive disorder treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using the 1993-2007 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey database. A multinomial logistic regression with the Heckman two-step selection procedure was applied to capture the two-step nature of physician prescription decision making.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The weighted logistic regression indicated that patients' race/ethnicity and primary source of payment for services, physician ownership status, and physicians' practice regions were associated with differential likelihood of physician' antidepressant prescribing. Non-Hispanic white patients were more likely to be prescribed antidepressants compared to Hispanic patients (OR = 1.52, 95% CI 1.24-1.87). Physicians' choice on antidepressant varied across with patient age and health insurance status. Compared to private insurance, patients who were primarily covered by Medicare were less likely to be prescribed only SSRIs/SNRIs or other newer antidepressants (RRRs = 0.42 and 0.39; 95% CIs 0.21-0.83 and 0.18-0.84, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed strong associations between sociological factors and physicians' antidepressant prescribing patterns. Possible health disparities and gaps between optimal and suboptimal healthcare for patient mental health caused by systematic differences in sociological factors need to be mitigated. We need policy makers to design effective policy interventions to improve physician practice guidelines adherence to eliminate possible variations among physician practices.
authors.affiliation: Indiana University, USA. linhsi@indiana.edu
authors.forename: Hsien-Chang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Erickson
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Balkrishnan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003662:Decision Theory; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004363:Drug Utilization; D015507:Drugs, Investigational / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D015507:Drugs, Investigational; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors