Estonia · Antidepressants: Daily Doses per 1,000 People

## What this measures

How much of antidepressants (ATC group N06A) people in Estonia use: defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 inhabitants per day, one value per year, dated December 31. A defined daily dose is the World Health Organization's assumed average daily dose for an adult, so 100 means that on an average day, enough of these drugs was dispensed to treat one person in ten at the standard dose.

## Why it matters

Prescription drug use is one of the few mental-health measures counted the same way across many countries every year. It tracks diagnosis, access to care, prescribing habits and the spending of health systems and insurers, and it feeds the markets for these drugs.

## How to read it

Higher means more of the drug class dispensed per person. A rise can mean more illness, more diagnosis and treatment, longer courses, or a shift in prescribing; it does not by itself say which. Compare countries in the same year with care, and watch the trend within one country.

## What it does not say

It is not the share of people taking the drugs: the same total can be a few people on high doses or many on low ones. Countries differ in what they count. Some report only drugs dispensed by pharmacies outside hospitals, some include hospitals, and the OECD flags several of these series as differing from its definition. The United States does not report to this table, and Palanor publishes no estimate for it.

## Source

OECD Health Statistics, dataflow HEALTH_PHMC@DF_PHMC_CONSUM (pharmaceutical consumption), ATC group N06A, defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day, as compiled by the OECD from national authorities. OECD data may be reused for any purpose, including commercial, with credit: OECD (terms of use, section 3, Data). Source: OECD Health Statistics. Palanor re-reads the full table monthly, because the OECD revises back years.