Antidepressants Prescribed by Medical Doctors in Office Based and Outpatient Settings by Specialty for the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2002 and 2005. Statistical Brief No. 206

摘要

This Statistical Brief provides information as reported by households in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population on total utilization of outpatient antidepressant prescription medicines in 2002 and 2005. The brief also provides, by medical doctor specialty, estimates as reported by households on the percentage of prescriptions (not including refills) of antidepressants prescribed during office based and outpatient visits where a medical doctor spoke with the patient either in person or over the telephone for the years 2002 and 2005. The estimates in this brief are derived from the Household Component of the 2002 and 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC). In the MEPS-HC, the medical doctor specialty question was only asked in regards to office based and outpatient visits where a medical doctor either saw and spoke to the patient in person, or spoke to the patient over the telephone. Consequently, to obtain the medical doctor specialty percentages, the data were subcategorized to prescriptions (not including refills) of antidepressant prescribed medication purchases that were mentioned in relation to office based and outpatient visits where a medical doctor spoke with the patient. However, in MEPS, a respondent can report speaking with more than one doctor per visit, and can also report a prescribed medicine in relation to one or more outpatient or office based medical events. If more than one type of doctor specialty was reported in these examples, each specialty was included in the estimates.