Clinical and economic burden of major depressive disorder with acute suicidal ideation or behavior in a US Veterans Health Affairs database.

There are limited real-world data regarding patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder and having suicidal thoughts/behavior (MDSI) in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system. We examined data on 11,203 patients with MDSI from the VHA between October 1, 2015 and March 31, 2018. We compared patients with MDSI with patients with major depressive disorder alone (MDD) and patients with no depression (non-MDD). Our results showed that patients with MDSI were treated with more antidepressant therapy, had more hospital stays (inpatient visits), and incurred greater costs than the MDD and non-MDD patients. These results highlight the unmet need and potential opportunity to improve patient care among veterans and their families with MDSI.