Starting therapy for new users of antidepressants by potential therapeutic indication by therapeutic class and country
| Therapeutic class | Canada | USA | UK | Taiwan | ||
| Ontario sample (n=60 366 patients) | Montreal sample (n=13 303 patients) | Quebec city and Montreal (n=1308 patients) | Boston (n=10 131 patients) | CPRD (n=15 868 patients) | NHIRDB (n=17 580 patients) | |
| n Rx (%) | n Rx (%) | n Rx (%) | n Rx (%) | n Rx (%) | n Rx (%) | |
| Starting therapy for persons with a diagnosis of depression | ||||||
| SSRIs | 4357 (55.2) | 1548 (59.5) | 386 (67.5) | 1388 (59.0) | 1797 (71.4) | 930 (55.8) |
| SNRIs | 1039 (13.2) | 408 (15.7) | 72 (12.6) | 162 (6.9) | 67 (2.7) | 104 (6.2) |
| TCAs | 647 (8.2) | 129 (5.0) | 20 (3.5) | 179 (7.6) | 319 (12.7) | 138 (8.3) |
| SARIs | 940 (11.9) | 212 (8.2) | 32 (5.6) | 269 (11.4) | 56 (2.2) | 263 (15.8) |
| NDRIs | 321 (4.1) | 81 (3.1) | 30 (5.2) | 233 (9.9) | 1 (0.0) | 43 (2.6) |
| Noradrenergic serotonin specific | 590 (7.5) | 224 (8.6) | 32 (5.6) | 120 (5.1) | 277 (11.0) | 184 (11.0) |
| Other | 1 (0.0) | – | – | 1 (0.0) | – | 4 (0.2) |
| Starting therapy for persons with a diagnosis of chronic pain | ||||||
| SSRIs | 9823 (33.5) | 2643 (39.0) | 268 (46.4) | 2481 (46.1) | 2085 (31.8) | 2291 (18.9) |
| SNRIs | 3516 (12.0) | 762 (11.2) | 83 (14.4) | 395 (7.3) | 95 (1.5) | 315 (2.6) |
| TCAs | 8771 (29.9) | 1863 (27.5) | 100 (17.3) | 1176 (21.8) | 3963 (60.4) | 6703 (55.2) |
| SARIs | 5410 (18.5) | 1020 (15.0) | 65 (11.3) | 703 (13.0) | 89 (1.4) | 2353 (19.4) |
| NDRIs | 551 (1.9) | 108 (1.6) | 24 (4.2) | 424 (7.9) | 17 (0.3) | 126 (1.0) |
| Noradrenergic serotonin specific | 1221 (4.2) | 386 (5.7) | 38 (6.6) | 211 (3.9) | 315 (4.8) | 330 (2.7) |
| Other | 3 (0.0) | – | – | 2 (0.0) | 1 (0.02) | 27 (0.2) |
| Starting therapy for persons with a diagnosis of other mental health problems | ||||||
| SSRIs | 13 018 (49.5) | 2459 (53.3) | 309 (61.1) | 1384 (61.4) | 2565 (45.1) | 2212 (32.3) |
| SNRIs | 3099 (11.8) | 550 (11.9) | 61 (12.1) | 147 (6.5) | 105 (1.9) | 254 (3.7) |
| TCAs | 3823 (14.5) | 563 (12.2) | 28 (5.5) | 186 (8.2) | 2518 (44.3) | 2250 (32.8) |
| SARIs | 4107 (15.6) | 591 (12.8) | 53 (10.5) | 280 (12.4) | 102 (1.8) | 1684 (24.6) |
| NDRIs | 773 (2.9) | 98 (2.1) | 18 (3.6) | 163 (7.2) | 20 (0.4) | 126 (1.8) |
| Noradrenergic serotonin specific | 1480 (5.6) | 357 (7.7) | 37 (7.3) | 94 (4.2) | 374 (6.6) | 318 (4.6) |
| Other | 3 (0.0) | – | – | 2 (0.1) | 1 (0.0) | 15 (0.2) |
CPRD, Clinical Practice Research Datalink; NDRIs, norepinephrine- dopamine reuptake inhibitors; NHIRDB, National Health Insurance Research Database; SARIs, serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitors; SNRIs, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors; SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors; TCAs, tricyclic antidepressants.