Antidepressants and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients with depression:

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https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0265928

Antidepressants and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients with depression: Analysis of the medical expenditure panel survey from the United States

Omar A. Almohammed ,Abdulaziz A. Alsalem,Abdullah A. Almangour,Lama H. Alotaibi,Majed S. Al Yami,Leanne Lai

Published: April 20, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265928

Abstract

Background

Despite the empirical literature demonstrating the efficacy of antidepressant medications for treatment of depression disorder, these medications’ effect on patients’ overall well-being and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) remains controversial. This study investigates the effect of antidepressant medication use on patient-reported HRQoL for patients who have depression.

Methods
A comparative cohort, secondary database analysis was conducted using data from the United States’ Medical Expenditures Panel Survey for patients who had depression. HRQoL was measured using the SF-12 and reported as physical and mental component summaries (PCS and MCS). A cohort of patients that used antidepressant medications were compared to a cohort of patients that did not. Univariate and multivariate difference-in-differences (D-I-D) analyses were used to assess the significance of the mean difference of change on the PCS and MCS from baseline to follow-up.

Results
On average, 17.5 million adults were diagnosed with depression disorder each year during the period 2005–2016. The majority were female (67.9%), a larger proportion of whom received antidepressant medications (60.5% vs. 51.5% of males). Although use of antidepressants was associated with some improvement on the MCS, D-I-D univariate analysis revealed no significant difference between the two cohorts in PCS (–0.35 vs. –0.34, p = 0.9595) or MCS (1.28 vs. 1.13, p = 0.6405). The multivariate D-I-D analyses ensured the robustness of these results.

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[lark]

1. I don't know where I'd be without my Cymbalta & ratio product.

I use a unique blended approach for my anxiety, very low dose of Cymbalta (actually helps with my chronic back pain so that's a major plus) plus a 10 mg cbd/thc 1:1 ratio pill. I was using a concentrate syringe of thc/cbd, and I felt a little better, but it's 25% more expensive than the pills so I have converted to the less expensive option.

I'm just so glad there is something to help me. When I couldn't sleep or eat and was losing weight like crazy and all I could do was constantly "scheming" in my mind how to change my childs life so he could survive when he got out of jail. My brain just wouldn't stop fixating on this. Now I am in much better control of my thoughts and can eat and sleep ok.

I don't think I'd be ok without the Cymbalta.