Ajou University Reports Findings in Psychiatry (Association between depression and antibiotic use: analysis of population-based National Health Insurance claims data): Psychiatry

2021 NOV 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Psychiatry is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Suwon, South Korea, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Frequent exposure to antibiotic treatments may increase the risk of antibiotic resistance, which may threaten the effectiveness of future antibiotic treatments. Thus, it is important to identify the preventable risks in terms of antibiotic use.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Ajou University, “This study assessed the association between major depressive disorder (MDD) and antibiotic use by comparing the likelihood and extent of antibiotic use between patients with and without MDD. This retrospective cross-sectional study utilized the National Patients Sample data from the 2017 Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. We analyzed 16,950 patients with MDD, defined as those with at least two claims records stating a primary diagnosis of MDD (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision codes F32-33) and 67,800 patients without MDD (1:4 propensity-score matched control group). Antibiotic use was compared between the patients with and without MDD based on three variables: the presence of antibiotic prescriptions, total prescription days of antibiotics per year, and total medication costs of antibiotics per year. The adjusted odds ratio obtained by multivariate regression analysis for the presence of prescription of antibiotics was 1.31 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.25-1.36). In the negative binomial model, the number of prescription days was 1.25 times (95% CI: 1.23-1.28) higher in patients with MDD than in those without MDD. Generalized linear model analysis showed a 1.39-fold (95% CI: 1.36-1.43) higher cost of antibiotic prescription in patients with MDD than in those without MDD. Our results suggest a potential association between MDD and the prescription of antibiotics, implying that patients with MDD are relatively vulnerable to infections.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “It is important to prevent as well as closely monitor the occurrence of infections when managing patients with MDD.”

For more information on this research see: Association between depression and antibiotic use: analysis of population-based National Health Insurance claims data. BMC Psychiatry, 2021;21(1):536. BMC Psychiatry can be contacted at: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England. (BioMed Central - http://www.biomedcentral.com/; BMC Psychiatry - http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpsychiatry/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Hankil Lee, College of Pharmacy, Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Jong-Wook Lee and Hye-Young Kang.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03550-2. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal BMC Psychiatry is: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England.

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