Pharmacoeconomics of antidepressants in a tertiary care teaching hospital of rural India

Mental disorders constitute a wide spectrum ranging from sub-clinical states to very severe forms of disorders. Mental health problems can attain the disorder/disease/syndrome level, which are usually considered easy to recognize, define, diagnose and treat. To study the cost effectiveness of antidepressant drugs in a tertiary care teaching hospital of rural India and various factors associated with it. A cross sectional study was performed and the prescriptions were analyzed.The data from OPD was studied in a structured format.Drugs was categorized as per the pharmacological classification. The drugs were evaluated for their pharmacoeconomics. In an extensive study of 2months, 250 cases of psychiatric opd were evaluated.Depression (76%) was the most prevalent psychiatric ailment followed by anxiety (13%) and schizophrenia (11%). The prevalent age group was 21-40 years (38.4%). Females (71.54%) had the majority as compared to males (28.46%). Fluoxetine was the most prescribed antidepressant (45%). 76% of the patients were on monotherapy. Escitalopram-Clonazepam(45%) was the most frequently prescribed fixed dose combination. Average cost of therapy was calculated. Paroxetine(Rs 221) had maximum medication cost while Imipramine(Rs 21) had minimum medication cost.