Prolonged increase in psychotropic drug use among young women following the COVID-19 pandemic: a French nationwide retrospective study

• Published in: BMC medicine 2024-07, Vol.22 (1), p.274-10, Article 274
• Main Authors: Lamer, Antoine, Saint-Dizier, Chloé, Levaillant, Mathieu, Hamel-Broza, Jean-François, Ayed, Eiya, Chazard, Emmanuel, Bubrovszky, Maxime, D'Hondt, Fabien, Génin, Michael, Horn, Mathilde
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Age; Aged; Analysis; Anti-Anxiety Agents - therapeutic use; Antianxiety agents; Antidepressants; Antidepressants, Tricyclic; Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use; Anxiolytics; Child; Consumers; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Data reuse; Dosage and administration; Drugs; Drugstores; Epidemics; Female; France; France - epidemiology; Gender aspects; Health aspects; Humans; Hypnotics; Hypnotics and Sedatives - therapeutic use; Life Sciences; Male; Marketing research; Mental health; Middle Aged; National insurance; Observational studies; Pandemics; Pharmacoepidemiology; Pharmacy; Psychiatry; Psychological aspects; Psychotropic drugs; Psychotropic Drugs - therapeutic use; Retrospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; Sex differences; Sex Factors; Teenagers; Trends; Women; Young Adult; Young adults; Young women; Youth
• ISSN: 1741-7015; 1741-7015
• DOI: 10.1186/s12916-024-03496-8

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on mental health, with evidence suggesting an enduring mental health crisis. Studies worldwide observed increased usage of antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics during the pandemic, notably among young people and women. However, few studies tracked consumption post-2021. Our study aimed to fill this gap by investigating whether the surge in the number psychotropic drug consumers in France persisted 2 years after the first lockdown, particularly focusing on age and gender differences. We conducted a national retrospective observational study based on the French national insurance database. We retrieved all prescriptions of anxiolytics, hypnotics, and antidepressants dispensed in pharmacies in France for the period 2015-2022. We performed interrupted time series analyses based on Poisson models for five age classes (12-18; 19-25; 26-50; 51-75; 76 and more) to assess the trend before lockdown, the gap induced and the change in trend after. In the overall population, the number of consumers remained constant for antidepressants while it decreased for anxiolytics and hypnotics. Despite this global trend, a long-term increase was observed in the 12-18 and 19-25 groups for the three drug classes. Moreover, for these age classes, the increases were more pronounced for women than men, except for hypnotics where the trends were similar. The number of people using antidepressants continues to increase more than 2 years after the first lockdown, showing a prolonged effect on mental health. This effect is particularly striking among adolescents and young adults confirming the devastating long-term impact of the pandemic on their mental health.