Antidepressants: relationship to the time to psychiatric readmission and probability of being in hospital in depressive patients.
BACKGROUND
Although antidepressants play a major role in the treatment of patients with depression, it is unclear which specific antidepressants are more efficacious than others. This study aims to analyze the relationship between several antidepressant substances and the time to readmission as well as the probability of being in hospital in a given week by using prescription data.


METHODS
The database was health-insurance claim data from the new Federal States in Germany. The analysis consisted of all patients with unipolar depression at their index admission in 2007 (N = 1803). Patients were followed up for 2 years after discharge from index hospitalization. Statistical analyses were conducted by discrete-time hazards models and general estimation equation models, accounting for various predictors.


RESULTS
Of all prescribed antidepressant substances, sertraline was related to an increased time to readmission by 37% and to a reduction in the probability of being in hospital in a given week by 40%. However, it was prescribed to only about 5% of the patients.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, only sertraline appeared to have clinical and economic advantages. It is remarkable that just a minority of patients received sertraline in our study, thus differing from the prescription pattern in the US.
Competence Tandem, Innovation Incubator, Leuphana University Lüneburg , Lüneburg , Germany ; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Center for Social Psychiatry, University Hospital of Psychiatry , Zurich , Switzerland.
Ingeborg
I
Warnke
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Center for Social Psychiatry, University Hospital of Psychiatry , Zurich , Switzerland.
Carlos
C
Nordt
Competence Tandem, Innovation Incubator, Leuphana University Lüneburg , Lüneburg , Germany.
Jörn
J
Moock
Competence Tandem, Innovation Incubator, Leuphana University Lüneburg , Lüneburg , Germany ; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Center for Social Psychiatry, University Hospital of Psychiatry , Zurich , Switzerland ; University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.
Wolfram
W
Kawohl
Competence Tandem, Innovation Incubator, Leuphana University Lüneburg , Lüneburg , Germany ; University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland ; Laboratory of Neuroscience, LIM27, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo , Sao Paulo , Brazil.
Wulf
W
Rössler
antidepressants; depression; probability of being in hospital; sertraline; time hazard models; time to psychiatric readmission