Clinical Guideline (CANMAT 2016) Discordance of Medications for Patients with Major Depressive Disorder in China

Yuncheng Zhu,1– 3,* Zhiguo Wu,4,* Dongmei Zhao,5 Xiaohui Wu,2 Ruoqiao He,6 Zuowei Wang,1,3 Daihui Peng,2 Yiru Fang2,7– 9 1Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Hongkou Mental Health Center, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Clinical Research Center & Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Clinical Research Center for Mental Health, School of Medicine, Shanghai University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 4Clinical Research Center in Mental Health, Shanghai Yangpu District Mental Health Center, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 5Division of Psychiatry, Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 6New York University, New York, NY, USA; 7Department of Psychiatry & Affective Disorders Center, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 8CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 9Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yiru Fang, Email yirufang@aliyun.comObjective: This survey aims to explore the current medical treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in China and match its degree with Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT).Methods: A total of 3275 patients were recruited from 16 mental health centers and 16 general hospitals in China. Descriptive statistics presented the total number and percentage of drugs, as well as all kinds of treatments.Results: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) accounted for the largest proportion (57.2%), followed by serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) (22.8%) and mirtazapine (7.0%) in the first therapy, while that of SNRIs (53.9%) followed by SSRIs (39.2%) and mirtazapine (9.8%) in the follow-up therapy. An average of 1.85 medications was administered to each MDD patient.Conclusion: SSRIs were the first choice in the first therapy, while the proportion of those drugs decreased during the follow-up therapy and were replaced by SNRIs. Plenty of combined pharmacotherapies were directly selected as the first trial of patients, which was inconsistent with guideline recommendations.Keywords: major depressive disorder, Chinese, guideline, antidepressants