Antidepressant prescriptions double in ten years

A report published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)  shows that, of all British National Formulary drug categories, prescription items for antidepressants saw the greatest numeric rise in 2015.

The report Prescriptions Dispensed in the Community 2005-2015 shows that the number of antidepressant items prescribed and dispensed in England has more than doubled in the last decade.

In 2015, there were 61.0 million antidepressant items prescribed – 31.6 million (107.6%) more than in 2005 and 3.9 million (6.8%) more than in 2014.

The net ingredient cost (NIC) of antidepressants has also increased in the past year, rising by £19.7 million (7.4%) to £284.7 million, however this is £53.8 million (15.9%) lower than in 2005.

This means that in 2015, antidepressants cost the NHS £780,000 per day.

The report also finds that more than 1.08 billion prescription items were dispensed overall in 2015. This is a 1.8% increase on the previous year, and a 50.4% increase on the same figure a decade ago.

The NIC for all prescriptions dispensed in 2015 was £9.27 billion. This is a 4.7% increase on the previous year, and a 16.8% increase on the same figure a decade ago.