Initiation of antidepressant use among refugee and Swedish-born youth after diagnosis of a common mental disorder: findings from the REMAIN study

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to compare the initiation and type of antidepressant use between refugees and matched Swedish-born youth after a diagnosis of a common mental disorder (CMD) and assess sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with the initiation. METHODS: The study cohort included youth aged 16–25 years, with an incident diagnosis of CMD based on specialized health care registers in Sweden 2006–2016, without prior antidepressant use during 1 year. One Swedish-born person was matched for each identified refugee youth (N = 3936 in both groups). Initiation of antidepressant use and factors associated with the initiation, were investigated with logistic regression yielding Odds ratios, OR, and 95% Confidence Intervals, CI. RESULTS: Refugees were less likely to initiate antidepressant use compared with Swedish-born (40.5% vs. 59.6%, adjusted OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.39–0.48). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were less frequently initiated for refugees than Swedish-born (71.2% vs. 81.3% of initiations, p < 0.0001). Sertraline was the most commonly initiated antidepressant both for refugees (34.3%) and Swedish-born individuals (40.3%). Among refugees, factors associated with increased odds of antidepressant initiation were previous use of anxiolytics or hypnotics, previous sickness absence of < 90 days, cancer and older age (OR range 1.07–2.72), and less than 5 years duration of residency in Sweden was associated with decreased odds (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.63–0.92). CONCLUSION: Young refugees with a CMD seem to initiate antidepressants in general and those most effective considerably less often than their Swedish-born counterparts. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00127-020-01951-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.