The Prevalence and National Burden of Treatment-Resistant Depression and Major Depressive Disorder in the United States
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2021
Estimates of the prevalence of treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in the US population have varied widely in the scientific literature, in part because the condition lacks a universally accepted definition. It is clear, however, that TRD imposes a substantial economic burden in the US, as several recent studies have shown. These studies have used the same definition of TRD and have assessed its per-person economic burden across of a variety of insurance payer types.
An article by researchers from Analysis Group – including Managing Principal Patrick Lefebvre, Vice President Dominic Pilon, Manager Masha Zhdanava, and Senior Research Professional Isabelle Ghelerter – and Janssen Scientific Affairs builds on these earlier studies by constructing a cost model to estimate the prevalence of TRD and the economic burden of both TRD and medication-treated major depressive disorder (MDD). Using the most widely accepted definition of TRD, the authors synthesized real-world data from earlier TRD studies across four payer types – Medicare, Medicaid, commercial plans, and the US Veterans Health Administration – and complemented this information with data related to work productivity and unemployment from the 2017 National Health and Wellness Survey.
The resulting cost model estimated 8.9 million adults with medication-treated MDD, of whom 2.8 million (30.9%) had TRD. The total annual burden of medication-treated MDD among the US population was $92.7 billion, with $43.8 billion (47.2%) attributable to TRD. A clear implication of the findings is that TRD is a disproportionately burdensome condition, and its effective management could result in significant social and economic improvements.
The article, “The Prevalence and National Burden of Treatment-Resistant Depression and Major Depressive Disorder in the United States,” is published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Authors
Zhdanava M, Pilon D, Ghelerter I, Chow W, Joshi K, Lefebvre P, Sheehan JJ