Cross sectional database analysis of antidepressant prescribing in general practice in the United Kingdom, 1993-5

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Abstract
Cross sectional data for two periods of 12 months ending June 1993 and June 1995 were obtained from the database of the doctors' independent network (DIN-LINK); this is maintained by the independent company Compufile (Woking, Surrey), which provides general practice data mainly to the pharmaceutical industry. It contains data from 100 general practices (377 general practitioners, 750 000 patient records) across the United Kingdom that use AAH Meditel practice computer systems. Prescriptions for antidepressants linked to a general practitioner's diagnosis of depression were included in the study. Antidepressants that accounted for less than 2% of the total were excluded. The effective dose of tricyclic antidepressants was taken as 125 mg daily from the consensus guidelines1 and that of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors as the value in the manufacturers' data sheets.