title: Danish physicians' preferences for prescribing escitalopram over citalopram and sertraline to treatment-naïve patients: a national, register-based study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether general practitioners, hospital physicians and specialized practitioners in psychiatry have similar preferences for initiating treatment with expensive serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
  
  
  METHODS
  All first-time prescriptions for the SSRIs escitalopram, citalopram and sertraline reported to the Danish National Register of Medicinal Product Statistics from April 1, 2009 until March 31, 2010 were analysed with regard to treatment naivety and type of prescriber. A prescription was considered as first time if the patient had not received a prescription for the same drug within the last 2 years. Patients who had not received a prescription for an antidepressant within 6 months prior to the date of redemption were classified as treatment-naïve.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We included 82,702 first-time prescriptions, 65,313 (79 %) of which were for treatment-naïve patients. Of the treatment-naïve patients, 19 % were initially prescribed escitalopram. Hospital physicians prescribed escitalopram to 34 % of their treatment-naïve patients, while practitioners specialized in psychiatry prescribed it to 25 %, and general practitioners prescribed it to 17 %. General practitioners, however, were responsible for initiating 87 % of all treatment-naïve patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most expensive SSRI, escitalopram, is prescribed as first choice to one in five patients receiving their first antidepressant of escitalopram, citalopram or sertraline. General practitioners made the bulk of all first-time SSRI prescriptions to treatment-naïve patients.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Medicines Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Karen Killerup
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Poulsen
authors.forename: Dorte
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Glintborg
authors.forename: Søren Ilsøe
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thirstrup
authors.forename: Lise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Aagaard
authors.forename: Stig Ejdrup
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Andersen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015283:Citalopram / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003718:Denmark; D004363:Drug Utilization; D058005:General Practitioners; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011570:Psychiatry; D012042:Registries; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D020280:Sertraline / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D015283:Citalopram; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors; D020280:Sertraline