Using Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network data to examine depression in patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson disease: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson disease is a complex neurodegenerative disorder, and a comorbidity of depression is common. We aimed to describe demographic and health characteristics of patients with Parkinson disease and examine sex differences in antidepressant prescriptions for those with comorbid depression using electronic medical records.
METHODS: We analyzed Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network data for patients 18 years and older with a diagnosis of Parkinson disease who had at least 1 primary care encounter between Sep. 30, 2012, and Sep. 30, 2014. We used regression modelling to determine sex differences in antidepressant prescriptions. An advisory group of clinicians helped determine the common list of medications and interpreted the results.
RESULTS: We identified a total of 1815 patients (54.9% male) with Parkinson disease during the study period. The mean age of patients was 74.6 years. Most (82.0%) lived in urban areas. Patients had a mean number of 15.5 primary care encouters over the 2-year study period. Almost 40% of patients had a concurrent diagnosis of depression. More than half of the patients had received a depression diagnosis within 1 year of their Parkinson diagnosis. Eight out of every 10 patients had a prescription for at least 1 medication for depression, the most frequently prescribed being selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). No sex differences were found in the number or type of medications.
INTERPRETATION: Our findings support Canadian Parkinson Guidelines for Routine Screening of Comorbid Depression, but more evidence and decision-support tools are needed to examine the efficacy of antidepressants and assist clinicians in evaluating the frequent SSRI prescriptions in this population.