| Summary: | The specific goals of this study are to determine trends in the usage and comparison of clinical patterns of antidepressant treatment modality in a
tertiary hospital between year 2009-2011. We retrospectively reviewed prescription records in the Outpatient Pharmacy Department (OPD) of a
tertiary hospital in central Malaysia from 2009 to 2011.About 3000 prescriptions, containing at least one anti-depressant drug, were systematically
sampled and evaluated. Malay patients had a decreasing trend of 3% in anti-depressant usage over the study.Escitaloprom (SSRI) group was found to be the most widely utilized antidepressant with a steady increase of 9% while usage of Fluvoxamine was found to show a decreasing trend over
the three years.The overall pattern profoundly favoured monotherapy modality rather than combination therapy among practitioners.This study also found an increasing pattern in the use of antidepressants with antianxiety and antipsychotic.In general, this study has contributed additional information regarding the prescribing pattern of anti-depressants in Malaysia at the current moment.
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