Participant characteristics and descriptive analysis
| Characteristics | All participants (N = 73 808) |
|---|---|
| Age, years, median (IQR) | 63 (52–75) |
| Sex, female, n (%) | 38 402 (52.03) |
| Ethnicity group, n (%) | |
| Asian | 4413 (5.98) |
| Black | 1805 (2.45) |
| White | 41 607 (56.37) |
| Missing (imputed as White) | 25 098 (34.0) |
| Mixed | 366 (0.50) |
| Other | 519 (0.70) |
| Diabetes treatment stage, n (%) | |
| Early stage (no pharmacological treatment) | 9057 (12.27) |
| Metformin only | 21 088 (28.57) |
| Second-line oral antidiabetics | 33 028 (44.75) |
| Insulin | 10 635 (14.41) |
| Concurrent prescriptions at the time of starting antidepressant treatment, median (IQR) | |
| Number of concurrent prescriptionsa | 7 (4–10) |
| Number of concurrent repeat prescriptionsa | 5 (3–8) |
| Antidepressant prescribing outcomes | |
| Duration of first antidepressant course, months, median (IQR) | 4.57 (0.92–19.22) |
| Early discontinuation, n ( %) | 32 665 (44.26) |
| Switched antidepressant agent, n (%) | 8672 (11.75) |
| Censored <224 days (32 weeks), n (%) | 3854 (5.22) |
↵a Concurrent prescriptions were measured at/before the first recorded antidepressant medication; these include antidiabetic medications but exclude the antidepressant itself. IQR = interquartile range.