New Antidepressant Prescriptions Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Sex and Age Differences in a Population-Based Ecological Study

Purpose: It is well established that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of depressive symptoms in the general population. So far, there are no studies analyzing how this pandemic has affected the prescription of antidepressants. Methods: We retrospectively estimated the incidence of new cases of depression by analyzing new prescriptions of antidepressive agents over a period of 6 years distributed in three periods of 2 years each: pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic, running from March 2018 to February 2024. This research was conducted in a healthcare area with 130,000 individuals in Spain. Results: New prescriptions for antidepressants increased significantly during the pandemic and even more in the post-pandemic period, with the increase being greater in women than in men. During the pandemic period, the increased prescription for antidepressants was specifically due to an increase among people under 20 years of age, while in the post-pandemic period, the increase has occurred in all age groups. In the subgroup analysis, we found that the pandemic period exclusively affected the number of women aged 40 or under who were prescribed a new antidepressant, while in the post-pandemic period, there has been a significant increase in the number of both male and female patients with a new antidepressant in all age groups compared to the two previous periods, except in young men aged up to 20 years. Conclusions: Our study highlights the importance of addressing the mental health of the population in parallel with addressing physical problems and adapting health systems accordingly.