Shoulder to shoulder, Broadening the Men's Shed movement

Sheds were often hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, forced to close for significant periods of time, this had some impact on the mental health of Shedders and family members. A reprint of the earlier book would not necessarily lend itself to the comprehensive reflection and evidence needed to illustrate the growth and adaptability of the movement over nearly three decades. [...]Shoulder to Shoulder: Broadening the Men's Shed Movement documents the story of the broadening of the movement into many more countries, and of its growing relevance to diverse cohorts, for example, younger folk, non-Anglo speaking community members, and women. The book provides case studies and detailed descriptions of the origin and function of Sheds in a growing number of countries showing that Shedders' lives have been changed for the better, particularly those who were disconnected, isolated or were adjusting to life as retirees, widowers or with chronic health issues.

"We are to weather this storm": Analysis of announcements of the rector of the University of Iceland during Covid-19

Various studies point to the importance of guarding gender equality in times of Covid-19 as there is the risk of backlash (Al-Ali, 2020;Zarkov, 2020), both because the situation of subordinate groups tends to worsen and, in times of uncertainty, equal rights tend to be put aside. In this article we analyse the announcements sent out in the name of the Rector of the University of Iceland to students and staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. We ask what was the response of the University of Iceland to the Covid-19 pandemic? What messages were communicated to the UI staff of a university that presents itself as a leading university and how did these messages conform to UI policies regarding gender equality and family responsibilities? In order to answer this question, we analyse 96 announcements sent between February 2020 and May 2021, and consisted, after data cleaning, of around 34,000 words. We analyse the data from a gender perspective and utilise discourse analysis. The findings reveal that the University of Iceland responded by sending out announcements regularly, with the aim of keeping both staff and students informed about the way UI was reacting to and implementing instructions given out by the disease prevention authorities. By informing students and teachers simultaneously about the situation, the impression was given that everyone was in the same boat. However, in reality this was not the case as different groups faced different challenges. Teachers were expected to take additional responsibility regarding the welfare of students, not only in relation to teaching, assignments and course assessment, but also regarding students' financial circumstances and well-being. It can, therefore, be argued that expectations regarding academic housework and academic caring were raised substantially. This analysis connects to the university's policies regarding gender equality and family responsibilities. Women attend to teaching to a larger extent than men and research shows that women are simply expected to take on more caring work than men. Within the announcements, this difference is neither addressed nor is there a link to gender equality or family responsibility policies. The findings show that rather than slowing down there is an emphasis on gearing up and achieving results, which is in line with notions of,the excellent university" and the temporal order of capitalism (Suckert, 2021). Subsequently there is more emphasis on keeping the system going rather than considering the situation and the well-being of employees. The message is, therefore, paradoxical and inconsistent. Sometimes university policies have a supportive role within the announcements, indicating how well the university is doing, while at other times within the same announcements the policies are contradicted. The paradox becomes crystallised, when citing different persons for inspiration, with the intention of pulling both students and employees through the pandemic, since men are for the most part cited in the announcements as sources of inspiration. Generally speaking, it can be said that the announcements sent during the Covid-19 pandemic highlight how relying on employees to maintain the university`s prominent and leading position is ill-matched when it comes to employees` well-being and family life. The aim of this study is to draw attention to the gendered message sent out and its potential gendered consequences. We want to emphasize the importance of intertwining gender and equality perspectives within all policies of the University of Iceland, as is indeed specified within the equality policy of the university itself. Only in that way will it be possible to break down the aura of gender inequality and practise equality for real.

Advancing patient safety governance in the COVID-19 response

In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the safety of health care services remains a serious, ongoing challenge. This once-in-a-century global health crisis exposed the vulnerability of healthcare delivery systems and the subsequent risks of patient harm. Given the scale of the occurrence and costs of preventable patient safety events, intervention and investment are still relatively modest. Good patient safety governance focuses on what leaders and policy makers can do to improve system performance and reduce the financial burden of avoidable care. Moreover, it is essential in driving progress in improving safety outcomes. This report examines how patient safety governance mechanisms in OECD countries have withstood the test of COVID-19 and provides recommendations for countries in further improving patient safety governance and strengthening health system resilience.

Improving the timeliness of health expenditure tracking in OECD and low-and middle-income countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that access to timely health spending data is crucial for informed policy-making. This Health Working Paper summarises and compares the methodologies applied in around half of OECD countries to estimate public and private health spending for the most recent year (i.e. t-1) as well as the approaches taken by the OECD Secretariat to fill existing data gaps for the remaining OECD countries. For the first time, the paper also explores the feasibility of nowcasting health spending for the current year (i.e. t) and examines data sources that could be potentially useful in such an exercise. While this review should help OECD countries that do not yet have experience in estimating health spending for year t-1 to improve the timeliness in their data reporting, a special focus in this paper lies on testing the applicability of the methods in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), using the WHO Western Pacific Region (WPRO) as an example. Generally, different data sources exist in many countries that would allow for a more timely estimation for health spending aggregates.

Nature-based tourism as therapeutic landscape in a COVID era: autoethnographic learnings from a visitor's experience in Iceland.

One of the few silver linings in the COVID pandemic has been a new appreciation for, interest in, and engagement with nature. As countries open, and travel becomes accessible again, there is an opportunity to reimagine sustainable nature-based tourism from a therapeutic landscape lens. Framed within the therapeutic landscape concept, this paper provides an autoethnographic account of a visitor's experience of three different natural landscapes in Iceland shortly after the country's fourth wave of the pandemic. It adds to the understanding of the healing effects of the multi-colored natural landscapes of Iceland. The natural landscapes of interest herein include: the southern part of the Westfjörd peninsula, Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, and the Central Highlands. In totality, the natural, built and symbolic environments worked in synchronicity to produce three thematic results: restoration, awe and concern, all which provided reduced stress, renewed attention, as well as enhanced physical and psycho-social benefits for the autoethnographic visiting researcher. Implications of these restorative outcomes for sustainable nature-based tourism in a post-COVID era are discussed. This paper highlights how health and tourism geographers can work collaboratively to recognize, protect, and sustain the therapeutic elements of natural landscapes, recognized as a cultural ecosystem service. In so doing, such collaborations can positively influence sustainable nature-based tourism development and consumption through proper and appropriate planning and development of such tourism destinations.

Environmental Compliance and Practices Of Cruise Ships in ísafjörður, Iceland

The drastic growth of cruise tourism in the world, while potentially beneficial for economic growth in local communities, also brings concerns regarding environmental impacts. This research used the port of Ísafjörður, Iceland, a growing hotspot destination for cruise ships, as a case study to aid in understanding the potential environmental impacts from cruise ships. The study's aims were: 1) to determine the quantity and type of waste discharged to the shore facilities by cruise ships in Ísafjörður in 2019, and 2) to explore the compliance behavior of the ships in adhering to Icelandic and international environmental regulations. To do this, quantitative and qualitative questions were presented in a survey to officers from 40 cruise ships, accounting for 87% of the total 46 different ships that docked in Ísafjörður in the 2019 cruise ship season. The survey questions were designed based on the MARPOL Convention and the law of Iceland, and these questions were compared with the ship's statutory record or ship's certificates to strengthen the reliability of the data. The questions covered five categories: emissions, waste oil, wastewater, garbage and food waste, and ballast water. Results showed that very little garbage and food waste had been discharged to shore facilities, and this was likely because Ísafjörður is one of several stops for many cruise ships in Iceland and the waste had simply been discharged elsewhere. In assessing the other four categories, 8 out of the 40 cruise ships carried out illegal activities, including 12 specific violation cases. This article discusses three primary reasons for those violations: accessibility, inconsistency, and monitoring. This research was conducted pre-COVID-19;however, by 2022 cruise ship calls in Ísafjörður approached preCOVID-19 numbers. Interested parties such as local communities, national decision makers, tourism boards, municipal planners, and environmental agencies must use the best available knowledge, such as this study, to manage the positive and negative aspects of the growth of cruise ship tourism, and perhaps even more so in a post-COVID-19 phase.

SARS-CoV-2 in animals used for fur farming: GLEWS+ risk assessment (20 January 2021)

SARS-CoV-2 was first identified in humans in December 2019 and has since affected almost 68 million people causing over 1.5 million deaths worldwide. Animal-to-human and animal-to-animal transmission has been documented within farmed minks in several countries. SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in a farmed mink population in a number of countries. Some of the affected farms reported also workers SARS-CoV-2 infection and it is hypothesized that the mink farms were infected through human-mink transmission proving SARS-CoV-2 capability of reverse zoonosis. This Tripartite Risk Assessment, as a joint effort under the GLEWS+ initiative, completed with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), evaluates the risk of introduction and spread of SARS-CoV-2 within fur farming systems as well as whether farmed fur animals could play a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to humans via spillover. Additionally, using a One Health approach, the Tripartite evaluated the risk of the escaped minks leading to the establishment of a viral reservoir in susceptible wildlife populations. This work provides guidance to Members on this newly emerging threat.

COVID-19 and Well-Being in Remote Coastal Communities—A Case Study from Iceland

This study utilizes a recently developed framework for the well-being economy to evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 in the sparsely populated Westfjords region of northwestern Iceland. A total of 42 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a broad spectrum of local community members, nearly all undertaken in October 2021. Local impacts to human and social capital were very evident, whilst economic consequences to individuals and business were largely mitigated through national economic packages. The remoteness of the Westfjords and pre-existing challenges, such as exposure to nature disasters, a harsh climate, and limited infrastructure, provided a bedrock of resilience with which to tackle the pandemic. This underpinned the sustainability of the communities, and flexible approaches to work and education constrained some of the worst potential effects of social distancing and isolation. Nevertheless, some socio-demographic groups remained harder hit than others, including the elderly in nursing homes and non-Icelandic speaking foreigners, who were marginalized via isolation and lack of information provision in the early, most severe outbreaks of COVID-19. The study demonstrated the coping mechanisms and solutions that were adopted to sustain subjective and community well-being, whilst reinforcing the importance of utilizing local community strengths in tackling the many challenges induced by a pandemic crisis. © 2022 by the authors.

Three Nordic countries responding to COVID-19 - Eldercare perspectives.

Comparative international studies show that about half of the deceased in the COVID-19 pandemic were persons living in institutional and residential eldercare. As seniors are the most affected age group, we aim to study if and to what extent the eldercare services were included in the National Pandemic Plans, and how they were included in the response during the first phase of the pandemic in Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. We use the CRISMART approach to crisis documentation and analysis in comparing national response to the pandemic for the eldercare sector. The method enables comparison of extraordinary crisis situations from the decision-making and policy-making perspective. We found that there were both similarities and differences in the preparedness of the three Nordic countries, as well as in how they responded to the pandemic. In all three countries the focus of the national responses framed the problem as a health and healthcare services' problem. We also found value conflicts in the response between the value of protection versus social contact and self-determination and hence relating to the quality of eldercare. Keeping in mind the proportional increase of elderly people, care challenges, and future crises, we must strengthen the position of local social services within the emergency management systems to enhance disaster resilience and sustainability of our societies.

Moving forward from the COVID-19 pandemic: Do students see eLearning as an integral part of their future learning environment?

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic caused a paradigm shift in the way study material was presented and how learning was assessed at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science in Iceland. The pandemic resulted in an unplanned shift from classical on-site lectures and problem-based learning to online activities through Teams, Zoom, Canvas, and other platforms (hereafter collectively termed eLearning). The way forward, post-pandemic, has been under discussion. Within this context, the aim of this study was to explore the students' view regarding what platform of teaching would benefit their learning environment in the future. Method(s): A survey was sent to all registered pharmacy students using Google Forms. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. Result(s): The response rate was 25.8% (n = 55). Majority of students (96%) either partially or fully agreed that access to lectures (streaming lectures or pre-recordings) improved during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. Students were asked if they had a good overview of their education when it comprised of both on-site and eLearning (on a scale of 0 - 10, with 10 being a complete overview), 69% of students gave an overview score of 7 or above, showing that this combination was not problematic in terms of oversight. When asked what combination of on-site and eLearning would be most beneficial for their education moving forward, nearly 75% of students preferred to have the main focus on eLearning with some on-site activities. Only 9% of students preferred to have all lectures and learning activities on-site, whilst 14% of students preferred to have all learning via eLearning platforms. Conclusion(s): It is evident, from the students' point of view, that eLearning will become an integral part of the future learning environment at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Iceland. Most students appreciate face-to face discussions and problem-based activities to some extent, so a combination of eLearning and on-site activities will be the way forward beyond the pandemic.

Comparing COVID-19 pandemic health responses in two high-income island nations: Iceland and New Zealand.

AIMS: We aimed to compare COVID-19 control measures, epidemiological characteristics and economic performance measures in two high-income island nations with small populations, favorable border control options, and relatively good outcomes: Iceland and New Zealand (NZ). METHODS: We examined peer-reviewed journal articles, official websites, reports, media releases and press articles for data on pandemic preparedness and COVID-19 public health responses from 1 January 2020 to 1 June 2022 in Iceland and NZ. We calculated epidemiological characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as measures of economic performance. RESULTS: Both nations had the lowest excess mortality in the OECD from the start of the pandemic up to June 2022. Iceland pursued a mitigation strategy, never used lockdowns or officially closed its border to foreign nationals, and instead relied on extensive testing and contact tracing early in the pandemic. Meanwhile, NZ pursued an elimination strategy, used a strict national lockdown to stop transmission, and closed its international border to everyone except citizens and permanent residents going through quarantine and testing. Iceland experienced a larger decrease in gross domestic product in 2020 (relative to 2019) than NZ (-8·27% vs. -1·22%, respectively). In late 2021, NZ announced a shift to a suppression strategy and in 2022 began to reopen its border in stages, while Iceland ended all public restrictions on 25 February 2022. CONCLUSIONS: Many of Iceland's and NZ's pandemic control measures appeared successful and features of the responses in both countries could potentially be adopted by other jurisdictions to address future disease outbreaks and pandemic threats.

A Global Picture of School Social Work in 2021

The article provides a global picture of school social work in 2021 using data gathered by the International Network for School Social Work. School social work is a growing specialty around the world. There are school social workers practicing in more than 50 countries. School social workers support students' educational success, especially those who are marginalized by poverty, oppression, disability and other personal or social problems. Ideally school social workers practice within a multi-disciplinary team to address wide-ranging barriers to education and participate in preventive programs for all students. The article describes the growth of school social work around the world, various models of practice, the role of specialty professional associations, training and standards, and the growth of school social work literature. Changes in the role and practice of school social work since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/2021 are included. International communication among school social workers has grown via publications, conferences and the International Network for School Social Work, and continues to assist expansion of the specialty around the world. Implications for the future of social work in education are discussed, a list of national school social work associations is provided and references include literature on school social work from various countries.

Globalisation, Ideology and Social Justice Discourses. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research. Volume 30

This book examines dominant discourses in social justice education globally. It presents cutting-edge research on the major global trends in education, social justice and policy research. Using diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to discourse analysis, the book examines major social justice and equity education reforms and policy issues in a global culture, with a focus on the ambivalent and problematic relationship between social justice education discourses, ideology and the state. The book discusses democracy, ideology and social justice, which are among the most critical and significant factors defining and contextualising the processes surrounding social justice education reforms globally. It critiques current social justice education practices and policy reforms, illustrating the shifts in the relationship between the state, ideology, and social justice education policy. Written by authors from diverse backgrounds and regions, this book examines current developments in research concerning social justice education. It enables readers to gain a more holistic understanding of the nexus between social justice education, and dominant ideologies, both locally and globally. It also provides an easily accessible, practical, yet scholarly insights into local and global trends in the field of social justice education. Discourses of Globalization, Ideology and Social Justice, with contributions from key scholars worldwide, should be required reading for a broad spectrum of users, including policy-makers, academics, graduate students, education policy researchers, administrators, and practitioners.

Risky Obliviousness Within Fragmented Services: Experiences of Families With Disabled Children During the Covid‐19 Pandemic

Living on an island in a pandemic has its obvious advantages. However, in a globalised economy, border restrictions can-not keep the Covid‐19 virus completely at bay. Despite coordinated efforts at infection control and extensive vaccination, Iceland, a sparsely populated island in the north, was placed among the countries in the highest risk category by the ECDC. In this article, we report a qualitative study carried out at the peak of the fourth Covid‐19 wave in 2021, when the pandemic had severely hit the Icelandic social and healthcare system, with a record‐breaking number of infections. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with parents with seven disabled children. Guided by feminist standpoint theory and critical disability studies, we focused on how service structures affected and shaped parents' and children's experiences during the first waves of the pandemic. The findings suggest that the pandemic intensified the already precarious position of the families. During the pandemic, the gaps in the already fragmented services widened, and the families were left to navi-gate this new reality on their own. Preventive measures enforced by municipalities and healthcare services centred on non‐disabled people's experiences and needs. Unprepared service systems distanced themselves from the families while maintaining governance and supervision over defining their need for support. © 2023 by the author(s);licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal).

Surveillance of the Second Wave of COVID-19 in Europe: Longitudinal Trend Analyses.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted Europe, resulting in a high caseload and deaths that varied by country. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has breached the borders of Europe. Public health surveillance is necessary to inform policy and guide leaders. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to provide advanced surveillance metrics for COVID-19 transmission that account for weekly shifts in the pandemic, speed, acceleration, jerk, and persistence, to better understand countries at risk for explosive growth and those that are managing the pandemic effectively. METHODS: We performed a longitudinal trend analysis and extracted 62 days of COVID-19 data from public health registries. We used an empirical difference equation to measure the daily number of cases in Europe as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. RESULTS: New COVID-19 cases slightly decreased from 158,741 (week 1, January 4-10, 2021) to 152,064 (week 2, January 11-17, 2021), and cumulative cases increased from 22,507,271 (week 1) to 23,890,761 (week 2), with a weekly increase of 1,383,490 between January 10 and January 17. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom had the largest 7-day moving averages for new cases during week 1. During week 2, the 7-day moving average for France and Spain increased. From week 1 to week 2, the speed decreased (37.72 to 33.02 per 100,000), acceleration decreased (0.39 to -0.16 per 100,000), and jerk increased (-1.30 to 1.37 per 100,000). CONCLUSIONS: The United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal, in particular, are at risk for a rapid expansion in COVID-19 transmission. An examination of the European region suggests that there was a decrease in the COVID-19 caseload between January 4 and January 17, 2021. Unfortunately, the rates of jerk, which were negative for Europe at the beginning of the month, reversed course and became positive, despite decreases in speed and acceleration. Finally, the 7-day persistence rate was higher during week 2 than during week 1. These measures indicate that the second wave of the pandemic may be subsiding, but some countries remain at risk for new outbreaks and increased transmission in the absence of rapid policy responses.

Women prime ministers and COVID‐19: Within‐case examinations of New Zealand and Iceland

Related Articles As COVID‐19 cases and deaths mounted globally in the spring of 2020, the news media presented a narrative that women heads of government were more successful at handling the pandemic, sparking a scholarly debate. We take an in‐depth look at two of the headline women‐led cases (New Zealand and Iceland) to identify critical junctures and crucial actors in the policy‐making process. Our research questions are as follows: What main factors comprised the executive decision‐making process and approach to COVID‐19 management in New Zealand and Iceland, and to what extent do these factors intersect with prevailing gender stereotypes of feminine leadership? We conducted elite interviews with senior politicians and civil servants in New Zealand and Iceland and found that consensus‐oriented governance, honest and frequent communication with the public, agile and adaptive institutions, deference to scientific advice, collective and decisive action, and policies guided by empathy and humility have proved critical in these cases, and that many of these factors are associated with stereotypically feminine leadership traits.Jalalzai, Farida. 2006. “Women Candidates and the Media: 1992‐2000 Elections.” Politics & Policy 34(3): 606–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2006.00030.x.Malmberg, Fredrik G., and Henrik Serup Christensen. 2021. “Voting Women, Protesting Men: A Multilevel Analysis of Corruption, Gender, and Political Participation.” Politics & Policy 49(1): 126–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12393.Martin, James Richard. 2018. “Consensus Builders? The Influence of Female Cabinet Ministers on the Duration of Parliamentary Governments.” Politics & Policy 46(4): 630–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12266. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR]

The Contributions of the Scientists across the Globe in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 disease, which was declared pandemic by WHO on the 11th of March 2020, has affected more than 200 countries worldwide and adversely affected whole areas of life. Aim: Our aim in this study is to investigate whether scientists in countries with low mortality rates and a higher reported number of COVID-19 cases among OECD countries sufficiently share their scientific knowledge. Methodology: A literature search was conducted with the keywords, "COVID-19, SARS-CoV2, Coronavirus" in scientific databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus and Medline to find the number of published articles conducted by scientists in OECD countries between the period 01 March 2020 to 01 July 2020. To define the number of academic population of the countries, the number of residents in tertiary education levels of OECD countries was obtained from the educational attainment of 25-64 year-olds report published on the OECD website. Results: In regards to the countries with the lowest fatality rates, India (n:1578), Australia (n:1097), and Korea (n:876) are the top three countries that have contributed to the scientific literature with the most published studies on COVID-19 issue. Conclusions: Concerning the current scientific data, about 2,000 papers regarding COVID-19 disease have been registered in the PubMed database since the early beginning of this year. The number of scientific publications is not consistent with the rate of tertiary education levels. Besides, the number of observed cases, and the data-sharing policies of the countries are determinants of the number of scientific publications.

Taking a mass participant course in digital design from local to online during the Covid-19 pandemic

During the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the traditional education structure as we know it has been largely transformed due to lockdowns and social distancing. This study is a detailed description of how a normally face-to-face undergraduate course in digital design with laboratory sessions at the University of Iceland was transformed into a fully online based course. We show the essentialities required to transform the lectures and laboratory sessions from local to online. Furthermore, we compare the students' performance during the online teaching with that of previous students who participated in local teaching. © 2022 IEEE.

Remote IoT teaching across the North-Atlantic

The ability to offer courses over the Internet between remote teacher(s) and students enhances curricula and can improve quality in university work regarding both teaching and research. This is particularly true for small universities that struggle to offer comprehensive curricula due to lack of professors and students. In the spring semester of 2021, the University of Iceland offered a course on the Internet of Things taught by a professor emeritus in Atlanta, Georgia, assisted by a local professor. The lectures were given on Zoom and all assignments and exams were given over the Internet. In this paper, this course's framework will be described, how it was implemented and what was accomplished. The authors will also share their thoughts on the future of this kind of university work that has to some extent developed due to the Covid situation. © 2022 IEEE.

Trends in utilization of antidepressants in twenty European Countries

Introduction: The use of antidepressants seems to be increasing in most countries worldwide, probably due to the increasing burden of stressful life (1). Apart from their therapeutic application, antidepressants are sometimes used as lifestyle drugs. Monitoring antidepressant usage is crucial to prevent unnecessary consumption and avoid adverse effects and additional costs (2). Objectives: The aim of this work was to study trends in antidepressants utilization in various European countries, and to note changes in their usage between the years 2013 and 2019, before the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic. Methods: Data on antidepressants consumption in 20 European countries were collected from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data bases. Antidepressants consumption was expressed in Defined Daily Doses (DDDs) per 1,000 inhabitants per day, and calculations referred to years 2013 and 2019. Changes in antidepressants use during this six-year period in each European country were assessed. The statistical package SPSS (Chicago, IL, USA) was used for calculations. Results: There was a huge variation in antidepressants usage among the 20 countries of our study. The mean consumption of antidepressants was 52.67 DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day in 2013 (range 10.2-113.7 DDDs) and 62.51 DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day in 2019 (range 17.6-146.0 DDDs), with a mean increase of 9.84 DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day (18.68%) in just six years. The countries with the highest consumption of antidepressants in 2013 were Iceland (113.7 DDDs), Portugal (87.5 DDDs), Sweden (84.3 DDDs), Belgium (72.1 DDDs), Finland (69.4 DDDs) and Spain (65.2 DDDs). The countries with the highest consumption of antidepressants in 2019 were Iceland (146.0 DDDs), Portugal (123.7 DDDs), Sweden (102.7 DDDs), Spain (83.6 DDDs) and Belgium (81.9 DDDs). The countries with the lowest consumption of antidepressants in 2013 were Latvia (10.2 DDDs), Estonia (21.4 DDDs), Lithuania (24.7 DDDs), and Hungary (27,5 DDDs). The countries with the lowest consumption of antidepressants in 2019 were Latvia (17.6 DDDs), Hungary (29.5 DDDs), Estonia (34,8 DDDs) and Lithuania (35,4 DDDs). The use of antidepressants was increased in all European countries in the study period. There was only one exception: Finland, being one the countries with the highest consumption of antidepressants, reduced their use by 13%. In the countries with the lowest consumption of antidepressants (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania), the increase in antidepressants usage was higher than 40%. A similarly high increase (41.37%) was also observed in Portugal, which was second in antidepressant use in both years studied (2013 and 2019). The Countries with the lowest increase (less than 5%) were Austria, Norway and Luxemburg, which displayed an average consumption of antidepressants in the study period. Conclusion: There was a huge variation in antidepressants use among the 20 European countries of our study. A trend for increase in antidepressants use was observed in almost all countries during the six-year study period.