About Half Of Antidepressant Prescriptions Are For Insomnia, Anxiety, Pain

Antidepressants are being used for different kinds of reasons apart from depression. About 45 percent of prescriptions in a study were found to be for reasons such as insomnia, anxiety and pain.

Looking at prescription records of patients who visited doctors in Quebec between 2006 and 2015, the study focused on patients who were prescribed antidepressants.

The results showed that out of the 100,000 prescriptions, only 55 percent were to treat depression, with the remaining 45 percent used to treat anxiety disorders, pain, insomnia and other conditions. Moreover, 30 percent of the prescriptions appeared to be for "off-label use." Hence, the circumstances accompanying their prescriptions were not approved by agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"I wasn't surprised by the indications themselves, but I was surprised by the extent," said Jenna Wong of McGill University and lead author of the study.

Hence, about six percent of the drugs prescribed were antidepressants and for "off-label" use, they ranged from 47 percent for anxiety disorders to 97 percent for insomnia.

Even though off-label prescribing isn't illegal, with the FDA giving doctors the freedom to judge their patients' needs, there is not enough evidence that shows the effectiveness of their use. Antidepressants are not dangerous or ineffective in treating insomnia, anxiety and pain. But there is not enough data to help understand whether they are effective enough or not.

"I think a lot of patients aren't aware that the antidepressants they're being prescribed for a particular problem sometimes have little sound scientific evidence behind them, and the same could be said for many doctors," she said.

The findings were published in the May 24 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.