Russian spending on antidepressants up by 70 percent

Russians’ expenditures on antidepressants in the first nine months of 2022 were 70 percent higher than in the same period in 2021, according to Russia’s Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (TsRPT), TASS reported on Friday.

The total amount of money Russians spent on antidepressants this year was approximately 5 billion rubles ($81.1 million).

In terms of quantity, antidepressant package sales increased by 48 percent. Russians had bought a total of 8.4 million packages of antidepressants this year as of September 30.

The biggest buyers of antidepressants were residents of Moscow (1,300 packages per 10,000 adults), St. Petersburg (1,200 packages per 10,000 adults), the rest of the Moscow region (976 packages per 10,000 adults), Karelia (939 packages were 10,000 adults), and the Rostov region (909 packages per 10,000 adults).

Experts who spoke to RBK attributed the rise in antidepressant purchases to the war, anxieties surrounding the effects of sanctions, and the surge in demand for medication in March, when Russians were concerned about possible shortages to come.

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