TY - JOUR
T1 - A survey of five antidepressant properties influencing clinician's treatment choices in MDD
AU - Papakostas, George I.
AU - Hallett, Lindsay A.
AU - Smith, Juliana
AU - Tossani, Eliana
AU - Mascarini, Alessandra
AU - Burns, Alana M.
AU - Birnbaum, Robert J.
AU - Fava, Maurizio
AU - Alpert, Jonathan E.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Introduction: The goal of the present work was to examine how clinicians' perceptions of the properties of antidepressants may influence their choice of antidepressants when treating major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods: 273 of 682 (40%) clinicians attending a psychopharmacology review course responded to a questionnaire designed to explore their practices and perceptions with regards to antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Results: Most clinicians ranked efficacy (57.3%) as the most important factor when selecting antidepressants, followed by safety (23.0%), tolerability (9.4%), rapidity of action (5.2%), and cost (4.9%). However, when presented with hypothetical scenarios in which there was a difference in efficacy between two antidepressant agents, the relative safety, tolerability, and cost of the two agents significantly influenced the likelihood of choosing one antidepressant over another. In fact, clinicians required progressively greater differences in efficacy between two agents in order to select one antidepressant over another given a difference in terms of their safety than tolerability, or their tolerability than cost (p < 0.0001 all comparisons). Conclusions: When selecting an antidepressant, clinicians appear to be most influenced by efficacy, followed by safety. Rapidity of action and cost may be less salient considerations in clinical practice. Further research is necessary to elucidate factors that influence clinicians' choice of antidepressants.
AB - Introduction: The goal of the present work was to examine how clinicians' perceptions of the properties of antidepressants may influence their choice of antidepressants when treating major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods: 273 of 682 (40%) clinicians attending a psychopharmacology review course responded to a questionnaire designed to explore their practices and perceptions with regards to antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Results: Most clinicians ranked efficacy (57.3%) as the most important factor when selecting antidepressants, followed by safety (23.0%), tolerability (9.4%), rapidity of action (5.2%), and cost (4.9%). However, when presented with hypothetical scenarios in which there was a difference in efficacy between two antidepressant agents, the relative safety, tolerability, and cost of the two agents significantly influenced the likelihood of choosing one antidepressant over another. In fact, clinicians required progressively greater differences in efficacy between two agents in order to select one antidepressant over another given a difference in terms of their safety than tolerability, or their tolerability than cost (p < 0.0001 all comparisons). Conclusions: When selecting an antidepressant, clinicians appear to be most influenced by efficacy, followed by safety. Rapidity of action and cost may be less salient considerations in clinical practice. Further research is necessary to elucidate factors that influence clinicians' choice of antidepressants.
KW - Antidepressant
KW - Depression
KW - Preferences
KW - Prescribing
KW - Survey
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U2 - 10.2147/nedt.2007.3.1.169
DO - 10.2147/nedt.2007.3.1.169
M3 - Article
C2 - 19300547
AN - SCOPUS:34249043253
SN - 1176-6328
VL - 3
SP - 169
EP - 172
JO - Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
JF - Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
IS - 1
ER -