OBJECTIVES: Innovative antidepressants have been widely adopted. However, the differences in patient factors and antidepressant use, and associated patient health and work outcomes were not jointly studied. This study was trying to understand how patient factors and antidepressant utilization were associated with patient employment durations and quality of life. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using the 2004-2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) database. Proportional hazard duration models were used to examine MDD patient’s employment duration. Linear regression models were implemented to study the impacts of MDD patient factors and antidepressant utilization on associated patient physical and mental health status. RESULTS:  Differences in employment duration across several patient factors were found. Cox proportional hazard model showed that, compared to uninsured patients, MDD patients covered by private insurance had a lower level of hazard of job termination (hazard ratio=0.15, p<0.01). Patients who were in better physical health conditions had a lower level of hazard of job termination (hazard ratio=0.96, p<0.01). Results from OLS regressions showed that, compared to patient without antidepressant pharmacotherapy for MDD treatment, patients who took innovative antidepressants such as SSRIs/SNRIs and other newer ones had a huge increase in MCS (β=11.35, p<0.01). In addition, better antidepressant adherence was significantly associated with an increase of MCS (β=0.10, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that effective policy interventions were needed for improving medication adherence, and the design of prescription drug benefit within health insurance should be tailored considering its associations with patient factors and related improvement in health status according to the findings of this study. We need policy makers to be engaged in designing effective policy interventions to improve patient medication adherence, which may in turn improve patient health status and labor market participation.