Demographic and clinical factors associated with different antidepressant treatments: a retrospective cohort study design in a UK psychiatric healthcare setting

Case Identification of Depression in Inpatient Electronic Medical Records: Scoping Review

Background

Electronic medical records (EMRs) contain large amounts of detailed clinical information. Using medical record review to identify conditions within large quantities of EMRs can be time-consuming and inefficient. EMR-based phenotyping using machine learning and natural language processing algorithms is a continually developing area of study that holds potential for numerous mental health disorders.

Objective

This review evaluates the current state of EMR-based case identification for depression and provides guidance on using current algorithms and constructing new ones.

Methods

A scoping review of EMR-based algorithms for phenotyping depression was completed. This research encompassed studies published from January 2000 to May 2023. The search involved 3 databases: Embase, MEDLINE, and APA PsycInfo. This was carried out using selected keywords that fell into 3 categories: terms connected with EMRs, terms connected to case identification, and terms pertaining to depression. This study adhered to the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines.

Results

A total of 20 papers were assessed and summarized in the review. Most of these studies were undertaken in the United States, accounting for 75% (15/20). The United Kingdom and Spain followed this, accounting for 15% (3/20) and 10% (2/20) of the studies, respectively. Both data-driven and clinical rule-based methodologies were identified. The development of EMR-based phenotypes and algorithms indicates the data accessibility permitted by each health system, which led to varying performance levels among different algorithms.

Conclusions

Better use of structured and unstructured EMR components through techniques such as machine learning and natural language processing has the potential to improve depression phenotyping. However, more validation must be carried out to have confidence in depression case identification algorithms in general.

Identifying Military Service Status in Electronic Healthcare Records from Psychiatric Secondary Healthcare Services: A Validation Exercise Using the Military Service Identification Tool

Electronic healthcare records (EHRs) are a rich source of information with a range of uses in secondary research. In the United Kingdom, there is no pan-national or nationally accepted marker indicating veteran status across all healthcare services. This presents significant obstacles to determining the healthcare needs of veterans using EHRs. To address this issue, we developed the Military Service Identification Tool (MSIT), using an iterative two-staged approach. In the first stage, a Structured Query Language approach was developed to identify veterans using a keyword rule-based approach. This informed the second stage, which was the development of the MSIT using machine learning, which, when tested, obtained an accuracy of 0.97, a positive predictive value of 0.90, a sensitivity of 0.91, and a negative predictive value of 0.98. To further validate the performance of the MSIT, the present study sought to verify the accuracy of the EHRs that trained the MSIT models. To achieve this, we surveyed 902 patients of a local specialist mental healthcare service, with 146 (16.2%) being asked if they had or had not served in the Armed Forces. In total 112 (76.7%) reported that they had not served, and 34 (23.3%) reported that they had served in the Armed Forces (accuracy: 0.84, sensitivity: 0.82, specificity: 0.91). The MSIT has the potential to be used for identifying veterans in the UK from free-text clinical documents and future use should be explored.

Antidepressant prescriptions and therapy intensification in men and women newly diagnosed with depression in the UK

BACKGROUND

Evidence on therapeutic interventions and factors driving treatment intensification (TI) in people with incident depression in UK are scarce.

AIMS

To explore antidepressant prescribing patterns and factors influencing TI.

DESIGN

and setting: Retrospective cohort study of adults with incident depression diagnosed between 2006 and 2017 using UK primary care database.

METHODS

Patterns of antidepressant prescriptions, and factors influencing TI were evaluated by sex.

RESULTS

In 931,302 people with depression (90% initiating antidepressants), mean age was 39 years, 41% were male, 14% had cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM), and 54% were diagnosed at < 40 years. Being the most prescribed first-line antidepressant (62%), SSRI prescribing rate increased from 66 per 1000 person-years to 170 per 1000 person-years; 24% (2% dose escalation, 4% adding, 18% switching) of first-line antidepressant initiators intensified with 13 months median time to TI. Compared to 60-70 years, younger adults had significantly higher TI risk (range of hazards ratio, HR: 1.08-1.42). CMM and anxiety were associated with 15-24% and 39-49% significantly higher TI risks respectively. First-line antidepressant and deprivation status influenced TI differently by gender.

CONCLUSIONS

Men and women with depression in UK have different antidepressant prescription patterns in real-world. Age at diagnosis, deprivation status and cardiometabolic multimorbidity are the major sociodemographic and non-psychiatric risk factors for therapeutic changes.

The Potential of Research Drawing on Clinical Free Text to Bring Benefits to Patients in the United Kingdom: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Background: The analysis of clinical free text from patient records for research has potential to contribute to the medical evidence base but access to clinical free text is frequently denied by data custodians who perceive that the privacy risks of data-sharing are too high. Engagement activities with patients and regulators, where views on the sharing of clinical free text data for research have been discussed, have identified that stakeholders would like to understand the potential clinical benefits that could be achieved if access to free text for clinical research were improved. We aimed to systematically review all UK research studies which used clinical free text and report direct or potential benefits to patients, synthesizing possible benefits into an easy to communicate taxonomy for public engagement and policy discussions. Methods: We conducted a systematic search for articles which reported primary research using clinical free text, drawn from UK health record databases, which reported a benefit or potential benefit for patients, actionable in a clinical environment or health service, and not solely methods development or data quality improvement. We screened eligible papers and thematically analyzed information about clinical benefits reported in the paper to create a taxonomy of benefits. Results: We identified 43 papers and derived five themes of benefits: health-care quality or services improvement, observational risk factor-outcome research, drug prescribing safety, case-finding for clinical trials, and development of clinical decision support. Five papers compared study quality with and without free text and found an improvement of accuracy when free text was included in analytical models. Conclusions: Findings will help stakeholders weigh the potential benefits of free text research against perceived risks to patient privacy. The taxonomy can be used to aid public and policy discussions, and identified studies could form a public-facing repository which will help the health-care text analysis research community better communicate the impact of their work.

Incidence of suicidal behaviour and violent crime following antidepressant medication: a Danish cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To examine the incidence of suicidal and violent behaviour following initiation of antidepressant medication.

METHOD

Cohorts of 997 911 conscripts and 95 794 patients with a first-time affective disorder were followed for purchase of antidepressant medication, suicide, suicide attempts and conviction for violent crime in Danish registries between 1997 through 2015. Incidence of outcomes was estimated for the first 28 days, 28-365 days or later after initiation of antidepressants or study entry.

RESULTS

Of 16.5% of conscripts and 73.7% of patients with affective disorders initiated antidepressant medication. Incidence of suicide was 3-4 times higher during the first 28 days after initiation compared to the rates in the following year in both cohorts. A similar trend was seen among the untreated patients with affective disorders, whereas suicide incidence was stable at a low level among conscripts not treated with antidepressants. Incidence of attempted suicide was highest during the 28 days before and after initiation of antidepressants, while rates of violent crime were similar before and after initiation. These trends in incidence were independent of class of antidepressant.

CONCLUSION

Higher rates of suicidal behaviour in the weeks following initiation of antidepressant medication probably reflect disease severity and a delay in mood response.

Clinical guidelines for the management of depression with specific comorbid psychiatric conditions French recommendations from experts (the French Association for Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology and the fondation FondaMental)

BACKGROUND

Recommendations for pharmacological treatments of major depression with specific comorbid psychiatric conditions are lacking.

METHOD

The French Association for Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology and the fondation FondaMental developed expert consensus guidelines for the management of depression based on the RAND/UCLA Appropriatneness Method. Recommendations for lines of treatment are provided by the scientific committee after data analysis and interpretation of the results of a survey of 36 psychiatrist experts in the field of major depression and its treatments.

RESULTS

The expert guidelines combine scientific evidence and expert clinician's opinion to produce recommendations for major depression with comorbid anxiety disorders, personality disorders or substance use disorders and in geriatric depression.

CONCLUSION

These guidelines provide direction addressing common clinical dilemmas that arise in the pharmacologic treatment of major depression with comorbid psychiatric conditions.

Efficacy and safety of Eurycoma longifolia (Physta®) water extract plus multivitamins on quality of life, mood and stress: a randomized placebo-controlled and parallel study

Background

The use of alternative and complementary medicines to alleviate stress has increased to avoid the negative effects of pharmaceutical drugs.

Objective

This study investigated the safety and efficacy of Eurycoma longifolia in combination with multivitamins (EL+MV) versus placebo on improving quality of life (QoL), mood and stress in moderately stressed healthy participants.

Methods

This randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled 24-week study enrolled 93 participants aged 25-65 years, with a body mass index of 18-30 kg/m², scoring ≤18 in tension and ≤14 in fatigue subscale of Profiles of Mood Scores (POMS) questionnaire and supplemented with EL+MV or placebo. The primary endpoints were QoL measured by 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) questionnaire and mood measured by POMS. The secondary endpoint was stress measured by Multi-Modal Stress Questionnaire (MMSQ). The safety of the intervention product was measured by complete metabolic panel, lipid and renal analysis including several immune parameters.

Results

While there were no significant between-group differences, within-group improvements were observed in the SF-12 QoL, POMS and MMSQ domains. In the SF-12 domain, improvements were seen in role limitation due to emotional health (P = 0.05), mental component domain (P < 0.001), emotional well-being (P < 0.001), social functioning (P = 0.002) as well as vitality (P = 0.001) at week 12. An increasing trend in POMS-vigour domain was also observed in the EL+MV group at week 12. A 15% decrease in physical stress domain (P < 0.05) compared with 0.7% in the placebo group was also observed in MMSQ. When the subjects were subgrouped according to age, 25-45 and 46-65 years of age, for primary outcomes, between-group significance was observed in the 25-45 year group in the social functioning domain of SF-12 (P = 0.021) and POMS-vigour (P = 0.036) in the 46-65 year group. No significant changes were observed in vital signs and complete metabolic panel. Regarding immune parameters, the lymphocytes increased significantly in the active group (P≤0.05). In total, 13 adverse events were reported: six on placebo and seven on EL+MV.

Conclusion

EL+MV may support the QoL, mood, stress and immune parameters in healthy participants.

Trial registration

This study has been registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02865863).