Rising Use of Antidepressants Among Young People Accelerated During and After Pandemic, Driven by Teenaged Girls and Women

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, antidepressant use was rising among adolescents and young adults. New research shows this rise not only continued but began to accelerate through and after the COVID pandemic, according to “Antidepressant Dispensing to U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults: 2016-2022,” in the March 2024 Pediatrics (available online Feb. 26). Researchers analyzed the IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database, which reports dispensing from most retail, mail-order, and long-term care pharmacies in the U.S., studying antidepressant prescriptions to adolescents, ages 12-17, and young adults, ages 18-25, from 2016 to 2022. During that time, the database showed 221,268,402 antidepressant prescriptions dispensed to 18,395,915 individuals: 11,836,944 (64.4%) females and 6,508,947 (35.8%) males. Antidepressant dispensing started accelerating from March 2020 onwards, rising 63.5% faster than the rate of change before March 2020. This increase is entirely attributable to increased antidepressant use by teenaged girls and young women. During and after the pandemic, antidepressant dispensing rates grew faster for girls and women, accelerating by 129.6% for teenaged females, ages 12-17, and 56.6% for women, ages 18-25. In contrast, antidepressant use decreased among males, ages 12-17, and changed little among young men, ages 18-25. Authors speculated these findings may reflect a greater need for antidepressants due to worsened mental health, changes in access to mental health care, and treatment patterns for anxiety and depression. They suggest there is a need for more research on these trends, including why antidepressant use didn’t rise in males when research has shown increased reports of sadness or hopelessness and suicide attempts among teenaged boys from 2019-2021. 

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.