Kern DM, Cepeda MS, Wiegand F, et al. - According to findings, there exists a large amount of variability and polypharmacy in the treatments administered to major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt (SI/SA), and is much more complex relative to what has been previously noted in the general MDD population.

• With respect to the treatment patterns of patients with MDD who experience SI/SA, a knowledge gap still exists.

• From a large US-based claims database, 42,204 MDD + SI/SA patients were identified.

• In the year before the index event, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) was taken by > 40% of individuals and an anxiolytic by more than one-third of individuals.

• Within 1 year following, ≥1 of the treatments of interest was received by 84.4%; of those, 70.2% received a subsequent class-based regimen, 46.3% received a third, and 28.1% received ≥4.

• This clarifies that within one-year, four or more unique class-based regimens were received by many patients and the majority of patients took treatments from multiple classes simultaneously.

• Thus, a high unmet medical need and therapy refractoriness of this patient population was suggested.

• During follow-up, the most common treatments included SSRIs (61.9%), followed by other antidepressants (51.3%), anxiolytics (50.8%) and anticonvulsants (43.6%).