The Swedish Diagnosis and Therapy Survey was used to analyse the presc
ribing of antidepressants from 1991 to 1996. There were considerable d
ifferences in doses prescribed depending on diagnosis. Adequate dosage
is an important factor in antidepressant treatment, and this study sh
owed that tricyclic antidepressants are often prescribed at lower than
recommended doses for the treatment of depression. Significantly high
er doses were prescribed in continued treatment, as opposed to in new
treatment, indicating dose titration when using tricyclic antidepressa
nts and the most common selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in dep
ression. The findings from the present study suggest that the optimal
dosage for some of the new antidepressants in clinical practice has no
t yet been determined and that costs of treatment in a natural setting
might be considerably higher than costs calculated from dose recommen
dations.