Abstract
The objective of this study was to examine the adequacy of antidepressant pharmacotherapy in a sample of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) treated by neurologists. Methods: MS patients under the care of neurologists were recruited from a large health maintenance organization. Major depressive disorder (MDD) was diagnosed using a structured telephone interview. Antidepressant treatment data were obtained from the HMO pharmacy database. Results: S tudy participants included 260 patients with MS treated by 35 neurologists. A total of 67 (25.8%) patients met the criteria for MDD. Among the patients with MDD, 65.6% received no antidepressant medication, 4.7% received subthreshold doses from their neurologists, 26.6% received doses at threshold, and 3.1% received doses exceeding threshold. Discussion: Depression was undertreated by the neurologists treating this sample of patients with comorbid MS and MDD. Potential solutions are discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 204-208 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Multiple Sclerosis |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2006 |
Keywords
- Adequacy of care
- Antidepressant medication
- Depression
- Major depressive disorder
- Multiple sclerosis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neurology
- Clinical Neurology