Ropponen A, et al. - Experts examined whether the years leading and the years following granting of disability pension (DP) because of back pain were correlated with alterations in prescription of antidepressants, if there were differences in these patterns concerning former specialized healthcare and whether there were variations compared with DP because of other musculoskeletal and other somatic than musculoskeletal diagnoses, in 17,368 individuals with incident DP in 2009 or 2010. Both in the analyses controlling for age and gender and in the multivariable analyses, prescription of antidepressants rose only very moderately towards DP because of back pain and following the DP the trend was also only slightly declining, irrespective of the former level of specialized healthcare. Trajectories of prescribed antidepressants previous to DP because of musculoskeletal and somatic disorders matched those of DP because of back pain however rises preceding to DP were more proclaimed. Pathways to DP because of musculoskeletal and somatic diagnoses appeared to be partially motivated by adverse mental health, which continues at a higher level following DP. The rising prescription of antidepressants former to DP implies that special consideration should be paid to mental health during the process of becoming work undermined in terms of early recognition and prevention of mental disorders or symptoms and consequently of DP. Moreover, the period following DP requires also a consideration to circumvent the deterioration of mental health.