Why are antidepressant sales surging in Russia after 4 years of war? – Firstpost

Practically 4 years after the launch of Russo-Ukrainian Warfare, Russia is confronting a public well being pattern that displays the extended psychological pressure of battle and financial hardship.

Official market knowledge, unbiased media investigations and pharmaceutical business figures present that Russians are consuming antidepressants at ranges by no means beforehand recorded.

Gross sales have grown yearly because the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and have now exceeded the volumes seen throughout that earlier disaster.

What market analysis has revealed

Market analysis by the Russian consultancy DSM reveals a sustained and steep upward trajectory in antidepressant gross sales over the previous a number of years. In 2019, pharmacies offered 8.4 million packages nationwide.

That determine rose to 13 million in 2022, adopted by 15.3 million in 2023 and 17.9 million in 2024. By final yr, annual gross sales had reached 22.3 million packages, representing nearly thrice the amount recorded earlier than the pandemic and the outbreak of the struggle.

The expansion charge has additionally accelerated. In 2025, antidepressant gross sales expanded by 36 % in contrast with the earlier yr, reported The Telegraph.

One other business consultancy, RNC Pharma, reported an identical sample and estimated that complete annual gross sales reached 23.5 million packages, suggesting that the dimensions of consumption could also be even increased than DSM’s figures point out.

This growth has pushed antidepressants into the highest tier of Russia’s retail pharmaceutical market. Between January and October 2025 alone, pharmacies offered 19.1 million packages, with retail turnover peaking in October at 15.7 billion rubles, the very best month-to-month determine ever recorded for this class.

Moscow and the encircling Moscow Oblast accounted for 31 % of antidepressant gross sales by worth, underlining the focus of demand in main metropolitan areas the place financial pressures, political controls and social change are felt acutely.

The pattern stands in distinction with earlier intervals of disaster. Through the first yr of the Covid-19 pandemic, pharmacies offered 7.9 million packages of antidepressants. In 2021, the determine rose to 9.2 million.

Each totals now seem modest in contrast with present ranges. The regular escalation since 2022 means that the struggle and its social penalties have produced a deeper and extra sustained psychological influence than the pandemic interval.

Why Russians are succumbing to antidepressants

Since
the invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of Russians have been detained for expressing opposition to the struggle. Greater than 20,000 folks had been arrested for anti-war exercise between 2022 and final yr, reported The Telegraph.

Stanislav Stanskikh, a Russia skilled, linked the rising reliance on antidepressants to those broader pressures, telling The Telegraph, “The rise is attributed to diminished stigma round looking for psychological well being care, stockpiling amid sanctions, and broader financial and social shocks.”

“Whereas the long-term psychological well being results of authoritarian rule stay debated, the World Well being Organisation has persistently proven that wars and different large-scale emergencies depart lasting psychological penalties, starting from persistent misery to PTSD and extreme psychological problems.”

He additionally identified the broader social atmosphere shaping psychological well being outcomes, “In Russia, the intensified political repression and the persecution of non secular and sexual minorities framed as ‘nationwide safety threats’, alongside the extended full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have created a local weather of worry, intimidation, and uncertainty.”

“Rising antidepressant use could subsequently mirror not solely particular person vulnerability, but additionally the broader psychological toll of dwelling below sustained repression and struggle, compounded by worldwide isolation, inflation, and financial decline.”

These pressures have filtered into on a regular basis life. Polling knowledge present that greater than one-third of Russians consider the nationwide financial system is worsening, a rise of 10 share factors in contrast with 2022.

Practically half of respondents stated it was an unfavourable time to search for work, whereas slightly below one-third reported difficulties affording meals for themselves and their households.

Sanctions, disruptions to commerce, and elevated navy spending have reshaped public funds and family budgets.

Funding allocations for welfare programmes, pensions and schooling have been redirected in the direction of sustaining navy operations, based on a number of studies. As social spending tightens, many households are going through elevated stress to satisfy fundamental wants.

Meals value inflation has turn out to be a visual image of this pressure. Since 2024, the price of potatoes has surged by 167 per cent following failed harvests, based on Russian media studies.

For a lot of households, staples similar to potatoes characterize a big share of meals consumption, making value rises significantly painful. Mixed with stagnant or uneven revenue progress exterior main cities, these will increase have contributed to widespread anxiousness about dwelling requirements.

Wage knowledge illustrate the uneven nature of revenue distribution. As of January 2025, the typical annual wage stood at round 83,000 rubles, with month-to-month earnings of roughly $908. In Moscow, common annual revenue reached about 106,000 rubles, reflecting increased pay ranges within the capital.

On the similar time, salaries within the defence sector and navy have risen sharply attributable to recruitment incentives. A brand new recruit can earn greater than $2,583 per 30 days, together with a considerable signing bonus and extra compensation within the occasion of dying or incapacity.

These incentives have drawn many into navy service, however in addition they spotlight the stark distinction between incomes linked to the struggle financial system and people obtainable in civilian sectors.

Impartial counts compiled by Mediazona in collaboration with the BBC, utilizing publicly obtainable info, present that greater than 160,000 Russian troopers had been confirmed killed by the tip of 2025.

Analysts warning that the true determine is probably going considerably increased as a result of many deaths are usually not publicly reported. Broader estimates recommend that complete losses could have reached 352,000 when unconfirmed fatalities and wounded personnel are taken under consideration.

These figures don’t seize the dimensions of psychological hurt skilled by returning troopers, their households, or communities affected by repeated mobilisation waves.

The struggle’s presence in Russian society is bolstered by recruitment campaigns, casualty bulletins, and the seen influence on native communities. In distinction to the pandemic, which concerned an “invisible” well being menace, the struggle manifests via tangible losses that contact households straight.

Through the pandemic, the Russian authorities reported round 130,000 deaths from Covid-19 between April 2020 and June 2021, though extra mortality estimates exceeded half 1,000,000 over the identical interval.

Whereas the pandemic disrupted every day life, the struggle has produced a extra persistent backdrop of grief, uncertainty and threat, elements that psychological well being specialists hyperlink to long-term psychological misery.

What Russians are shopping for – and what they can’t discover

Antidepressants at the moment are among the many most outstanding merchandise in Russian pharmacies, rating second in retail gross sales by worth. Probably the most broadly offered drugs embody sertraline, fluoxetine and amitriptyline.

Zoloft is presently the one highest-selling drug within the nation, with fluoxetine and amitriptyline additionally among the many mostly bought.

Regardless of state narratives vital of Western nations, lots of the most generally used antidepressants in Russia are Western-developed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, together with Zoloft, Prozac and Cipralex.

This reliance on imported or Western-origin drugs has unfolded towards a backdrop of recurring provide issues. Pharmacies in a number of areas reported shortages of important medicine all through 2025.

Complaints about unavailable medicines rose to 22,700 within the first 9 months of the yr, up from 19,100 over the identical interval in 2024.

Greater than 63 per cent of those complaints had been linked to medicine lacking from cabinets, whereas different grievances associated to refusals to situation prescriptions or prolonged delays in acquiring drugs.

Entry has been additional difficult by a decline within the variety of pharmacy shops. From January to September 2025, Russia averaged round 84,900 pharmacies, representing a discount of 754 areas in contrast with the earlier yr.

On common, every pharmacy served roughly 1,770 folks. Trade specialists have attributed the closures to a mix of market saturation, fiscal coverage adjustments, and growing stress from massive retail chains that smaller operators battle to compete with.

For residents in smaller cities and rural areas, these closures can imply longer journey occasions and diminished entry to drugs, together with antidepressants.

Though antidepressant costs in Russia are comparatively low in contrast with many Western markets — with fluoxetine costing round $2 and a 28-pill pack of Zoloft priced at roughly $7.73 — affordability stays uneven.

Revenue disparities between Moscow and different areas imply that medicine prices can characterize a heavier burden for households exterior main cities.

Whereas demand for antidepressants continues to climb, entry to constant therapy is turning into extra precarious in some areas.

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With inputs from businesses