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BackgroundAs people diagnosed with HIV and receiving combination antiretroviral therapy are now living longer, they are likely to acquire chronic conditions related to normal ageing and the effects of HIV and its treatment. Comordidities for people with HIV have not previously been described from a representative population perspective.MethodsWe used linked health administrative data from Ontario, Canada. We applied a validated algorithm to identify people with HIV among all residents aged 18 years or older between April 1, 1992 and March 31, 2009. We randomly selected 5 Ontario adults who were not identified with HIV for each person with HIV for comparison. Previously validated case definitions were used to identify persons with mental health disorders and any of the following physical chronic diseases: diabetes, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension, asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease, peripheral vascular disease and end-stage renal failure. We examined multimorbidity prevalence as the presence of at least two physical chronic conditions, or as combined physical-mental health multimorbidity. Direct age-sex standardized rates were calculated for both cohorts for comparison.Results34.4% (95% confidence interval (CI) 33.6% to 35.2%) of people with HIV had at least one other physical condition. Prevalence was especially high for mental health conditions (38.6%), hypertension (14.9%) and asthma (12.7%). After accounting for age and sex differences, people with HIV had significantly higher prevalence of all chronic conditions except myocardial infarction and hypertension, as well as substantially higher multimorbidity (prevalence ratio 1.30, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.44) and combined physical-mental health multimorbidity (1.79, 95% CI 1.65 to 1.94). Prevalence of multimorbidity among people with HIV increased with age. The difference in prevalence of multimorbidity between the two cohorts was more pronounced among women.ConclusionPeople living with HIV in Ontario, especially women, had higher prevalence of comorbidity and multimorbidity than the general population. Quantifying this morbidity at the population level can help inform healthcare delivery requirements for this complex population.

Objective To examine off-label indications for antidepressants in primary care and determine the level of scientific support for off-label prescribing.Design Descriptive study of antidepressant prescriptions written by primary care physicians using an indication based electronic prescribing system.Setting Primary care practices in and around two major urban centres in Quebec, Canada.Participants Patients aged 18 years or older who visited a study physician between 1 January 2003 and 30 September 2015 and were prescribed an antidepressant through the electronic prescribing system.Main outcome measures Prevalence of off-label indications for antidepressant prescriptions by class and by individual drug. Among off-label antidepressant prescriptions, the proportion of prescriptions in each of the following categories was measured: strong evidence supporting use of the prescribed drug for the respective indication; no strong evidence for the prescribed drug but strong evidence supporting use of another drug in the same class for the indication; or no strong evidence supporting use of the prescribed drug and all other drugs in the same class for the indication. Results 106 850 antidepressant prescriptions were written by 174 physicians for 20 920 adults. By class, tricyclic antidepressants had the highest prevalence of off-label indications (81.4%, 95% confidence interval, 77.3% to 85.5%), largely due to a high off-label prescribing rate for amitriptyline (93%, 89.6% to 95.7%). Trazodone use for insomnia was the most common off-label use for antidepressants, accounting for 26.2% (21.9% to 30.4%) of all off-label prescriptions. For only 15.9% (13.0% to 19.3%) of all off-label prescriptions, the prescribed drug had strong scientific evidence for the respective indication. For 39.6% (35.7% to 43.2%) of off-label prescriptions, the prescribed drug did not have strong evidence but another antidepressant in the same class had strong evidence for the respective indication. For the remaining 44.6% (40.2% to 49.0%) of off-label prescriptions, neither the prescribed drug nor any other drugs in the class had strong evidence for the indication.Conclusions When primary care physicians prescribed antidepressants for off-label indications, these indications were usually not supported by strong scientific evidence, yet often another antidepressant in the same class existed that had strong evidence for the respective indication. There is an important need to generate and provide physicians with evidence on off-label antidepressant use to optimise prescribing decisions.

Antidepressant use in the United States has increased over the last 2 decades. 1 A suspected reason for this trend is that primary care physicians are increasingly prescribing antidepressants for nondepressive indications, including unapproved (off-label) indications that have not been evaluated by regulatory agencies. 2 However, the frequency with which physicians prescribe antidepressants for nondepressive indications is unknown because treatment indications are rarely documented. We analyzed the prevalence of treatment indications for antidepressants and assessed temporal trends in antidepressant prescribing for depression.

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