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Notes -
Not checked, 2022 study claims tricyclics are the most common antidepressant class in germany. Tricyclics have worse side-effect profiles than SSRIs, and have mostly been phased out in the US, so idk what's up with that.
Tricyclics are worse for elderly but still not as bad as benzodiazepines (they can cause memory problems, also falls leading to hip fractures etc.) which are now licenced only for 2-4 weeks max. Maybe those 2% are mostly people on short term regiment but then again that would mean that if the licenced use is on average once per year, it is 24% of population.
Probably most people are not on short term use though. Many doctors in Latvia didn't even know that benzodiazepines licence was changed to short term use only. Judging from reddit posts, American doctors know it very well but struggle with patients who are addicted.
Vinay Prasad should add a chapter in his book Medical Reversals about change in benzodiazepine licencing and how they used to be prescribed so widely and only then we realized their harms.
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