Mental Health Prescriptions Spike Amid Pandemic Fears

While recent data published by U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics shows a drastically heightened prevalence of anxiety and depression in the United States in May 2020, data from Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit management company, indicates that the coronavirus pandemic started taking a toll on Americans’ mental wellbeing much earlier, right at the onset of the pandemic.

According to data based on an analysis of prescription claims among a sample of 31.5 million commercially insured individuals, prescriptions for anti-anxiety, anti-insomnia and antidepressant medications increased significantly between the week ended February 15 and the week ended March 16.

As the following chart shows, anti-anxiety prescriptions saw the biggest bump at 34.1 percent, while antidepressant and anti-insomnia medication was up 18.6 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively. The WHO officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, coinciding with the sample week the growth rates are based on.