OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has been declared by WHO since March 2020. Thousands of mental-health-related-surveys and -reviews have been reported globally since then. However, to our knowledge, there is no real world database analytic study on the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) on during the COVID-19 outbreak. We aim to evaluate the prevalence of MDD among US and Japan populations during vs before the COVID-19 pandemic using claims data in both countries.

METHODS: IQVIA Claims database which integrates payer claims data from the health insurance union for Japanese workers, and the IQVIA PharMetrics^® Plus data which captures fully adjudicated medical and pharmacy claims data from national and sub-national health plans and self-insured employer groups in the US were used. Cohort was identified as patients with MDD diagnosis (ICD-10: F32, F33) between October 2018 and September 2021. Cohort1 (Pre-COVID-19): cohort who received first anti-depressive treatment between April 2019 and September 2019. Cohort2 (during COVID-19): cohort who received first anti-depressive treatment between April 2020 and September 2020. Analysis was performed using IQVIA Evidence 360, a Software-as-a-Service Platform containing global real world datasets.

RESULTS: In Japan, the overall prevalence of MDD were 2.0% in cohort1 and 2.3% in cohort2, where MDD patients below the ages of 20 were 3.7% and 4.8%, respectively. In the US, the overall prevalence of MDD were 5.0% in both cohorts, where MDD patients below the ages of 20 were 8.6% and 9.9%, respectively. The duration of medical treatment had no significant changes in the 2 cohorts in both countries.

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of MDD was slightly increased during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 in Japan whereas there was no change in the US. Among these, children and teenagers tend to have higher prevalence of depression during the COVID-19 outbreak in both countries. Further details will be presented in the conference.