Increasing sales of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are closely related to increasing number of products on the market Margrethe Nielsen PhD student The Nordic Cochrane Centre Conflicts of interests: None

Sales of all psychoactive drugs in Denmark DDD: defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants

Influence of benzos and neurotransmitter reuptake inhibitors on total usage

The total sales of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine-like drugs and neurotransmitter reuptake inhibitors

Possible explanations

Sales of all psychoactive drugs in Denmark – changes in disease classification systems Symptoms and increasing number of diagnoses Increasing number of symptoms for the diagnosis of depression implementing and harmonising

Recommendation of screening from referenceprogram from the National Board of Health ”In the literature there is conflicting information about the efficacy of systematic screening for depression, in order to ensure that more people are treated. A newer Cochrane review is thus showing minimal influence of systematic screening on the degree of diagnostics, treatment and outcome. There is on the other hand a generel agreement that screening for depression in risk groups can improve outcome, for example for patients with stroke or heart disease.” (my translation)(IIb)

The Commission’s proposal on information to patients (1) Enable citizens to get high-quality informa- tion about prescription only-medicines Pharmaceutical companies should disseminate informa- tion about drugs Certain information in a new presentation

The Commission’s proposal on information to patients (2) Allowing the pharma- ceutical industry to promote their products to the public No clear distinction between advertising and information Comparisons between medicinal products are not allowed