A new study by Washington State University researchers concludes that antidepressants are prescribed to black and Hispanic patients suffering from depression at less than half the rate they are prescribed to similarly diagnosed white patients. Researchers also found that age, gender and insurance coverage are factors in determining access to drugs which are prescribed for patients suffering from depression.
Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders.
Sclar is a professor of health policy and administration, and director of the Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmacoepidemiology Research Unit. Sclar and his colleagues drew data for their analysis from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for the years 1992 through 1995. They found that a diagnosis of depression and the prescribing of an antidepressant increased, per 100 U.S. population, for whites from 6.5 to 7.7, for blacks from 2.6 to 3.4, and for Hispanics from 3.0 to 3.2. The authors concluded that the rate of physician office visits which resulted in a diagnosis of depression and the prescribing of an antidepressant was comparable among blacks and Hispanics by 1994-1995, but was less than half the rate for whites in either time period examined. Their report appeared in the December 1998 issue of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine.