Psychiatrist.comUse of Non-Psychiatric Medications with Potential Depressive Symptom Side Effects and Level of Depressive Symptoms in Major Depressive Disorder

Understanding the Effects of Drugs with Depressive Symptom Side Effects on Patients with MDD

Learn more about the complex interaction between the usage of specific drugs and the severity of depressive symptoms in people with major depressive disorder (MDD).

• The study utilized data from the 2013-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), focusing on 885 adults treated for MDD.
• A significant majority (66.7%) of these MDD patients used at least one non-psychiatric medication with potential depressive symptom side effects.
• Additionally, 37.3% of these patients used more than one such medication.
• The number of medications with depressive symptom side effects was inversely related to the odds of having no to minimal depressive symptoms.
• Conversely, the use of these medications was directly related to the odds of experiencing moderate to severe depressive symptoms.
• No such associations were found for medications without potential depressive symptom side effects.
• The study underscores the need for physicians to consider the side effects of concurrently used medications when evaluating the response to antidepressant treatment.