Table 3.

Number of Australians supplied PBS/RPBS prescriptions for antidepressants by age group, 2002–03 to 2017–18.

Patient age group	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	Break in series*	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
00 to 17 years	44,923	47,677	42,543	36,386	32,578	29,199	30,347	33,730	36,987		50,804	69,973	74,978	79,554	86,348	93,015	101,174
18 to 27 years	145,398	156,252	159,599	146,154	136,065	117,853	121,677	133,358	143,695		194,704	253,607	266,498	283,648	303,605	317,918	328,879
28 to 37 years	238,067	250,464	254,103	235,278	217,999	183,764	184,222	192,473	198,632		274,700	340,775	354,872	368,917	384,064	395,502	406,800
38 to 47 years	285,629	301,409	307,631	289,644	272,274	234,555	236,379	250,893	265,592		374,656	452,103	467,913	479,303	489,379	494,612	498,416
48 to 57 years	283,661	302,182	309,908	295,289	279,378	247,938	249,581	260,861	275,477		390,285	469,699	486,753	498,811	512,352	522,014	533,789
58 to 67 years	207,240	225,779	239,994	252,543	262,648	265,114	279,126	293,293	309,535		379,081	423,334	439,918	451,846	459,805	468,848	482,481
68 to 77 years	186,007	190,029	192,811	196,886	202,847	209,793	220,182	231,139	245,369		265,061	285,244	302,187	317,604	342,563	362,550	383,343
78 to 87 years	134,129	142,598	148,140	155,020	161,565	168,384	175,020	180,777	186,893		194,644	200,953	203,410	206,978	213,394	219,321	227,609
88+ years	31,941	34,714	36,857	39,033	40,728	43,054	47,325	51,310	56,243		61,007	65,078	68,675	71,639	74,664	77,757	80,431
Total	1,556,995	1,651,104	1,691,586	1,646,233	1,606,082	1,499,654	1,543,859	1,627,834	1,718,423		2,184,942	2,560,766	2,665,204	2,758,300	2,866,174	2,951,537	3,042,922

Includes medicines with an Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification of N06A - Antidepressants.

Includes patients with PBS and RPBS prescriptions, including under co-payment prescriptions*, supplied from 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2018 and processed on or before 9 January 2019.

Unique patient counts based on PBS data are not available prior to 1 July 2002.

Age of patient based on age at first supply of an antidepressant medicine during the relevant year. Ages grouped by 0-17 (under 18) and then 10 year age groups.

Excludes patients with unknown age.

*Data on under co-payment scripts was collected from 1 April 2012.

**Data prior to 2011-12 does not include under co-payment scripts and is therefore not comparable with data for 2011-12 and later years which includes under co-payment scripts.

2011-12 data includes under co-payment scripts for part of the year (from 1 April 2012). **

PBS online data maintained by the Department of Health and sourced from the Department of Human Services.

Data extracted 10 January 2019.

As stated above, some antidepressant dispensing before April 2012 was not captured, because the cost of some antidepressants did not reach the price threshold for PBS subsidy and therefore those prescriptions were not counted. Since April 2012, data on antidepressant dispensing has included these low-cost antidepressants. Therefore the data since April 2012 are more comprehensive.