Trends in antidepressant prescribing at a comprehensive cancer center

6132 Background: Antidepressant (AD) therapy may be initiated in cancer patients for affective or anxiety disorders, or management of symptoms. Practice patterns vary, and prescribing trends are poorly understood. Methods: Retrospective cohort study using outpatient prescribing data and routine clinical data available through the computerized data system at our comprehensive cancer center (CC). Results: Whereas the CC patient population “at risk” for AD exposure increased by 19% between 1998 and 2001( from 46, 081 to 54,902 patients), there was a 37% increase in the number of patients who filled an AD prescription at the CC pharmacy (p<0.0001). In the AD cohort of 2001, there was a preponderance of women (58.5%) and Caucasian (76%) patients and 65.5% were in the 40–65 yr. age category. Also noted was a significant association between gender and race (p<0.0001) in this group. Only 34.6% had an ICD-9 coded diagnosis related to depression or anxiety, and 246/1782 (13.8%) of patients were prescribed an AD by ...