Canadian seniors in long-term care are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than seniors living in the community.
Those are the findings of new data released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
The use of antidepressants rose throughout the community through the pandemic, but the rate was much higher in long-term care than in the community.
Manager of Pharmaceutical Operations with CIHI, Tracey Fisher says the data doesn’t say why antidepressant use increased so dramatically, but they have some pretty good ideas.
Seniors were disproportionately affected by isolation measures in place to reduce spread, having been largely cut off from their family and friends, which Fisher says, is reflected in the data.