Pharmacy Daily | SSRI script volumes on the rise

DATA from the Capital Chemist Group shows an 8.6% rise in prescription volumes for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for the year to date, potentially showing the impact of the bushfire and COVID-19 crises.

The increased use of SSRIs has seen the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) grant temporary Section 19A approval for two brands of fluoxetine, due to shortages of products registered for use in Australia.

Capital Chemist Group Business Manager, Andrew Topp, told Pharmacy Daily, that shortages of fluoxetine had prompted his team to start researching alternative brands and to conduct a data analysis across the group's 47 store - a number of which were in bushfire affected regions.

"I ran volume reports on the six SSRIs available in Australia, which represents about 120 different pack sizes, brands, dose forms and the like," he said..

"We have a unified POS system with strict attention to clerical accuracy which allows patterns to be really clearly seen; and over several hundred thousand scripts over the 11 months of 2020 I count these to be statistically significant."

The analysis revealed script volumes for four of the six SSRIs had increased over the 11 months of the year-to-date, with escitalopram scripts up 13%, fluoxetine volumes rising 12.4%, fluvoxamine rising by 4.6% and sertraline up by 11%.

Topp said script volumes for paroxetine had remained static, while citalopram was down by 9% so far this year.

"2020 has been a hard year for mental health in Australia," he said.

"Fluoxetine growth had increased by about 25% recently, probably due to our stronger supply lines.

"However, 8.6% script volume growth amongst SSRIs, is roughly double script volume growth...throwing some light on the mental health challenges experienced by Australians this year."