Record one in seven now on antidepressants as pill use rockets
A record one in seven people in England were prescribed antidepressants last year, with 9.1 million patients given the drugs by their GP, according to figures from the NHS Business Services Authority. This marks a rise of more than 15 per cent over five years and comes amid a sharp increase in depression and anxiety since the pandemic, prompting debate among experts over whether the trend reflects overprescribing or growing societal stress.
Some 96 million antidepressant prescription items were dispensed last year, up 21 per cent on five years earlier, with usage highest in North East and North Cumbria (200 per 1,000 people) and lowest in affluent parts of London, while the most deprived areas received around a third more prescriptions than the least deprived. Women accounted for 65 per cent of patients, and child prescriptions rose for the first time in four years, from 62,601 to 63,609. ONS data show adult depression rates almost doubled since 2019, to 18 per cent, while 2.8 million working-age people are now off work long-term with poor mental health, up from around 2 million before Covid.
- Record 9.1 million people in England prescribed antidepressants last year
- Use highest in deprived, northern areas; lowest in affluent London
- Experts split on whether overprescribing or rising distress is to blame
New here? Start with this
The rise in antidepressant use is being tracked through NHS prescribing data, which shows how many people in England are given these drugs by their GP each year. The figures come from the NHS Business Services Authority, a public body that manages NHS payment and prescribing records, and are widely used by researchers and journalists to monitor trends in mental health treatment.
Antidepressants are medicines prescribed for conditions such as depression and anxiety, and their use has been rising for years, with a particularly sharp increase since the coronavirus pandemic. Separate data from the Office for National Statistics, the UK's official statistics body, has also tracked rising rates of depression and the number of working-age people out of work due to poor mental health.
The scale of prescribing matters because it touches on wider debates about the nation's mental health, pressure on GP services, and regional and gender differences in who receives treatment. It also feeds into ongoing discussion among doctors and researchers about whether rising prescription numbers reflect more people needing help, changes in how depression and anxiety are diagnosed, or a greater willingness to seek treatment.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Many clinicians and mental health advocates argue the rise in prescribing largely reflects a genuine, measurable increase in need: depression rates have nearly doubled since 2019, long-term sickness linked to mental ill health has climbed sharply, and prescribing is highest in deprived areas where stress, economic insecurity and reduced access to talking therapies are most acute. On this view, wider antidepressant use signals that stigma is falling and that GPs are appropriately responding to a real rise in suffering, particularly where waiting lists for psychological therapies remain long and medication is often the only timely option available.
The case against
Other clinicians and researchers worry the figures point to overprescribing and a system defaulting to pills rather than addressing root causes, noting that antidepressants are often handed out in short GP consultations without access to therapy, social support or time to explore non-drug options first. They highlight that rises in child prescriptions and the sheer scale of use, nearly one in seven people, raise questions about medicalising ordinary distress caused by economic hardship, isolation or workplace pressure, and argue that resources should instead expand talking therapies, early intervention and social support rather than normalising long-term medication as the default response.
Celebrity Entertainment Health Medicine Space Technology World