There were more than 70m prescriptions for antidepressants in England in 2018 to treat conditions including depression and anxiety, according to NHS Digital. The 2016 and 2017 figures were 64.7m and 67.5m respectively. In 2008 the figure was 36 million.
Professor Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “For many people antidepressants can be lifesaving, but they should not be the ‘go-to’ for first instances of mild depression.” But Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “We will only prescribe medication to a patient after a full and frank discussion with them, considering their unique circumstances … antidepressants are no different, and it’s really important that increasing numbers of antidepressant prescriptions are not automatically seen as a bad thing.”
If you lived in England at the moment you would be depressed, too.
One of the worst things about antidepressant use in England is the regional disparity. The coastal and remote parts of the country use antidepressants at a far higher rate than the cities. Life in rural Britain is far from the idyllic paradise presented in films- it can actually be very isolating and boring.