Antidepressant sales in Russia on the rise

Meduza.io

Retail sales of antidepressants in Russia reached 16.1 million packs from January to November 2024, a 16.8 percent increase year-on-year and exceeding the total sales for all of 2023 (15.3 million packages), Kommersant reports, citing data from the analytics firm DSM Group.

Sales during the first 11 months of 2024 also surpassed the previous high of 13 million packages sold in 2022.

Antidepressant sales in Russia spiked following the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022. In just one week, from February 28 to March 6, 577,600 packages of antidepressants were sold for a total of 525.6 million rubles ($5.1 million). The Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies reported that in the first nine months of 2022, Russians’ spending on antidepressants rose by 70 percent compared to the same period in 2021. The number of packages sold increased by 48 percent, with 8.4 million purchased during that time.