Treatment patterns, healthcare resource utilization, and costs following first-line antidepressant treatment in major depressive disorder: a retrospective US claims database analysis

BACKGROUND: Although the symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) are often manageable with pharmacotherapy, response to first-line antidepressant treatment is often less than optimal. This study describes long-term treatment patterns in MDD patients in the United States and quantifies the economic burden associated with different treatment patterns following first-line antidepressant therapy. METHODS: MDD patients starting first-line antidepressant monotherapy and having continuous enrollment ≥12 months before and ≥24 months following the index date (i.e., the first documented prescription fill) were selected from the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan (2003–2014) database. Based on the type of first treatment change following initiation, six treatment cohorts were defined a priori (“persistence”; “discontinuation”; “switch”; “dose escalation”; “augmentation”; and “combination”). Treatment patterns through the fourth line of therapy within each cohort, healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), and cost analyses were restricted to patients with adequate treatment duration (defined as ≥42 days) in each line (analysis sub-sample, N = 21,088). HCRU and costs were described at the cohort and pattern levels. Treatment cohorts representing <5% of the analysis sub-sample were decided a priori not to be analyzed due to limited sample size. RESULTS: 39,557 patients were included. Mean age was 42.1 years, 61.1% of patients were female, and mean follow-up was 4.1 years. Among the analysis sub-sample, the discontinuation (49.1%), dose escalation (37.4%), and switch (6.6%) cohorts were the most common of all treatment cohorts. First-line antidepressant discontinuation without subsequent MDD pharmacotherapy (22.9%) and cycling between discontinuation and resumption (11.2%) were the two most common treatment patterns. Median time to discontinuation was 23 weeks. The switch cohort exhibited the highest HCRU (18.9 days with medical visits per-patient-per-year) and greatest healthcare costs ($11,107 per-patient-per-year) following the index date. Treatment patterns representing a cycling on and off treatment in the switch cohort were associated with the greatest healthcare costs overall. CONCLUSION: A high proportion of patients discontinue first-line antidepressant shortly after initiation. Patterns representing a cycling on and off treatment in the switch cohort were associated with the highest healthcare costs. These findings underscore challenges in effectively treating patients with MDD and a need for personalized patient management.