Prevalence of psychotropic and antidepressant use in a Brazilian Amazon city: analysis of two cross-sectional studies

Abstract

This article aims to assess the prevalence of psychotropic and antidepressant use and associated factors in a Brazilian Amazon city. Two cross-sectional studies conducted in Manaus in 2015 and 2019 with adults selected by proba-bilistic sampling. Prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated by Poisson regression with robust variance. 3,479 participants were included in 2015 and 2,321 in 2019; 2.0% used psychotropics in 2015 and 2.7% in 2019. Antidepressants were used by 0.4% (2015) and 1.4% (2019). Psychotropic use was lower in younger (PR = 0.41; 95%CI: 0.19-0.90), partnerless (PR = 0.64; 95%CI: 0.44-0.93), and informal workers (PR=0.47; 95%CI: 0.25-0.86), but higher in people with poor health (PR=2.86; 95%CI: 1.71-4.80), multimorbidity (PR = 3.24; 95%CI: 1.87-5.60), and who visited doctors (PR = 3.04; 95%CI: 1.45-6.38) or dentists (PR = 1.50; 95%CI: 1.08-2.10). Antidepressant use was higher in 2019 (PR = 2.90; 95%CI: 1.52-5.54), people with poor health (PR = 2.77; 95%CI: 1.16-6.62), and multimorbidity (PR = 8.72; 95%CI: 2.71-28.00), while lower in informal workers (PR = 0.33; 95%CI: 0.12-0.87) and unemployed (PR = 0.26; 95%CI: 0.08-0.81). Use of psychotropics remained stable in Manaus from 2015 to 2019, while antidepressant use more than tripled, which was marked by social inequalities.