The association of depression with use of prescription drugs in adults with noncommunicable diseases: Based on NHANES in 2005-2016

Background: It is not clear how the noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) performed in the association of depression with use of prescription drugs. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 20,836 participants with at least one NCDs who aged over 20 years old in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005-2016. Ordinal logistic regression under complex sampling was used to examine the association of depression with use of prescription drugs in patients with different categories of NCDs. Result: Among patients with respiratory diseases (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.13-1.76), genitourinary diseases (OR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.28-1.98), and cardiovascular diseases (OR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.27-1.60), the risk of depression was higher among those who used prescription drugs than those who did not. The results showed that the association of depression with use of prescription drugs was significantly stronger, especially in patients with genitourinary diseases >= 65 years of age (OR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.01-3.61). Trend analysis showed that the categories of prescription drugs used and the risk of depression was significantly statistically different (P for trend <0.001). Limitations: Self-reported prevalence of depression may differ from actual prevalence of depression. The categories of NCDs studied in this article are limited and the association between specific drugs and depression is not analyzed. Conclusions: In patients with NCDs, use of prescription drugs increased the risk of depression, and this risk increased significantly, especially in patients with genitourinary diseases who aged over 65 years. The risk of depression was increasing with the categories of prescription drugs used.

Automated summary

The study examined the association between depression and use of prescription drugs in patients with NCDs. It was found that the risk of depression was higher among patients who used prescription drugs, particularly in older patients with genitourinary diseases. The risk of depression increased significantly with the categories of prescription drugs used.