Czech use of antidepressants has tripled over the past seven years

Prague, Feb 19 (CTK) – Doctors prescribed 242 million usual daily doses of antidepressants, corresponding to 600,000 patients taking them daily, in the Czech Republic last year, which is three times more than seven years ago, according to the data of the Association of Czech Health Insurance Companies.

In 2012, some 200,000 patients were taking prescribed antidepressants, the association says in its press release.

One in five Czechs have ever experienced a mental disease, but less than a half of them received professional care, according to statistics.

“Unlike other brain-related diseases, depression is indicated in all age groups. The increasing stress and pressure play a role in this, along with a gradual destigmatisation of psychological disorders. People simply do not feel ashamed of seeing a psychiatrist anymore,” association president Ladislav Friedrich said.

Modern antidepressants do not affect the ability to work and live normally.

“Looking at the development in the Western world countries, mainly the United States, we can rather expect the rise in the administration of antidepressants not to stop. However, they are still drugs with all accompanying impacts, and not the pills to solve the problems that have often caused stress, he added.

Besides, the number of patients with another brain disorder, the Alzheimer’s disease, has considerably increased. At present some 26,000 are treated with it in Czechia, while in 2012, it was about 14,000.

Experts expect the number of these patients to further rise due to the population ageing. They estimate that some 150,000 with Alzheimer’s disease live in the Czech Republic with a population of 10.6 million now, while their number is to double in 2036.

Women suffer from Alzheimer’s disease more often than men, as most of the patients are over 65 and women live longer than men on average.