Ethnicity and the prescribing of antidepressant pharmacotherapy: 1992-1995

Little is known about the prescribing pattern for antidepressant pharmacoth erapy by ethnicity. The present study was designed to determine the rates o f office-based visits documenting the utilization of antidepressant pharmac otherapy, a diagnosis of a depressive disorder, or both, among whites, blac ks, and Hispanics age 20-79 years. Data from the National Ambulatory Medica l Care Survey for 1992-93 and 1994-95 were utilized for this analysis. Comp aring these time periods, we observed several trends: (1) The annualized me an rate per 100 US population of office-based visits documenting the use of antidepressant pharmacotherapy for any reason increased from 13.4 to 15.9 among whites (p less than or equal to 0.0001) and from 6.5 to 7.7 among bla cks (p less than or equal to 0.0001), but remained unchanged at 7.3 for His panics (p > 0.05). (2) Documentation of a diagnosis of a depressive disorde r increased for whites (10.9 to 12.0; p less than or equal to 0.0001), for blacks (4.2 to 5.6; p less than or equal to 0.0001), and for Hispanics (4.8 to 5.6; p less than or equal to 0.0001). (3) The recording of a diagnosis of a depressive disorder in concert with the initial prescription or contin uation of antidepressant pharmacotherapy also increased for whites (6.5 to 7.7; p less than or equal to 0.0001), for blacks (2.6 to 3.4; p less than o r equal to 0.0001), and for Hispanics (3.0 to 3.2; p less than or equal to 0.0001). We conclude that the rate of office-based visits documenting the u tilization of antidepressant pharmacotherapy, a diagnosis of a depressive d isorder, or both, was comparable among blacks and Hispanics by 1994-95, but was less than half the rate for whites in either time period examined. Fur ther prospective research is required to discern the reasons for observed d ifferences by ethnicity.