are almost one in five older women taking an antidepressant?
“We also know that, you know, especially among older women, the use of as-rise sky high. I think it's almost one out of five women being on the”
a guest, a psychiatrist and researcher in women's mental health said on Psychiatry & Psychotherapy Podcast, 2026-10-24, at 44:11. hear it in context →
the episode: Perimenopause and Mental Health: Depression, Anxiety, Brain Fog, Sleep, and Hormone Therapy (at 44:11). we link the show's own page; we do not re-host audio.
first, the part that holds
the speaker is right that antidepressant use is common among older women in the us and has been rising. the federal survey data put it at about one in five women in midlife and closer to one in four women aged 60 and over.
what we found when we went and looked
we read the cdc's national center for health statistics data brief no. 377, which uses the national health and nutrition examination survey (nhanes). it found that during 2015–2018, 24.3% of us women aged 60 and over had used an antidepressant in the past 30 days, the highest of any age-sex group. among women aged 40–59 the figure was 20.1%. so "almost one in five" is about right for midlife women and too low for women 60 and over, where it is nearer one in four. two caveats: the figures count all antidepressants, not just ssris, and the newest data in the brief end in 2018.
assertion by assertion
| assertion | verdict | what the record says |
|---|---|---|
| almost one in five older women is taking an antidepressant | undersold | nchs data brief 377 (nhanes 2015–2018, self-reported use in the past 30 days): 24.3% of women aged 60 and over, about one in four. that is higher than 'almost one in five.' women aged 40–59 were at 20.1%, which matches one in five. the data are national us figures that are now 8 or more years old. [1] |
| the drugs in question are ssris specifically (the garbled 'as-rise' in the transcript) | unverifiable | the nchs briefs group every antidepressant under one drug-class code (multum 249) and do not report ssris separately. ssris are only part of that total, so an ssri-only rate for older women would be below 24.3%. neither brief we read gives that number, and we can't confirm the transcript reading. [1][2] |
| antidepressant use among women has been rising | confirmed | nchs: from 2009–2010 through 2017–2018, the share of adult women who used an antidepressant rose from 13.8% to 18.6%. use among men did not increase significantly. 'sky high' is the speaker's description, not something the data can test. [1] |
| the 'one in five' figure may come from an older all-ages-60+ number | unverifiable | nchs data brief 283 (nhanes 2011–2014) reported 19.1% use among all persons aged 60 and over, men and women combined. that figure is almost exactly one in five, but the speaker did not name a source, so we can't say this is where it came from. [2] |
both directions
for the speaker: the cdc's national survey data agree with the direction and rough size of the claim. 20.1% of women aged 40–59 and 24.3% of women aged 60 and over reported using an antidepressant in the past 30 days during 2015–2018, the highest rates of any age-sex group. use among women rose from 13.8% in 2009–2010 to 18.6% in 2017–2018, while use among men did not increase significantly. that supports the speaker's point that use is high and rising among older women.
against: the figure is low, not high. for women 60 and over, the national estimate is nearly one in four (24.3%). if the speaker meant ssris only, the record we read does not give that number: the cdc counts all antidepressants together, including drugs that are not ssris. an ssri-only rate would be lower than 24.3%, but no one has published it in the sources we checked. the latest age-by-sex breakdown we found ends in 2018, so any claim about today is an extrapolation.
what this cannot say
nhanes measures self-reported prescription use in the past 30 days among us civilians who do not live in institutions. it leaves out nursing-home residents, which likely makes the true rate for the oldest women higher. it does not say why a drug was prescribed (depression, anxiety, menopausal symptoms, pain or sleep), at what dose, or for how long. the age bands (40–59, 60 and over) don't line up exactly with 'older women.' we did not find a more recent nchs breakdown by age and sex, and we did not find an ssri-only rate for older women from a primary source we could read in this session. so we can't rule out that the speaker had a different figure in mind.
sources, each one fetched and read
- national center for health statistics. antidepressant use among adults: united states, 2015–2018. nchs data brief no. 377, september 2020 (nhanes 2015–2018) What we read there: 13.2% of adults used antidepressants in the past 30 days; women 17.7%, men 8.4%. figure 1: women 18–39 10.3%, women 40–59 20.1%, women 60 and over 24.3% ('use was highest among women aged 60 and over'). 'from 2009–2010 through 2017–2018, the percentage of adults who used antidepressants increased among women, but not men.' antidepressants were identified by multum therapeutic class code 249, with no split by ssri. Fetched 2026-10-25 (HTTP 200). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db377-H.pdf
- national center for health statistics. antidepressant use among persons aged 12 and over: united states, 2011–2014. nchs data brief no. 283, august 2017 What we read there: 'during 2011–2014, 12.7% of persons aged 12 and over, 8.6% of males, and 16.5% of females took antidepressant medication in the past month.' 'antidepressant use increased with age, from 3.4% among persons aged 12–19 to 19.1% among persons aged 60 and over.' 'females were about twice as likely as males to take antidepressant medication.' no split by ssri. Fetched 2026-10-25 (HTTP 200). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db283.htm
speakers are described by role, not named. one sentence is quoted under fair use, with attribution and a link to the original at the timestamp; we do not re-host audio or video. nothing on this page is a reason to start, stop or change a medication. if you have the file behind anything marked unverifiable, the research board is where people can answer. adam