Published 10 September 2020
Summary
Mental health is a key area of the NHS Long term Plan published in 2019.
This publication aims to describe the prescribing of medicines used to improve mental health in England that are subsequently dispensed in the community. They do not include data on medicines used in secondary care, prisons, or issued by a private prescriber.
This is an experimental Official Statistics release.
Key findings
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The number of prescriptions for medicines used in mental health has fluctuated since March 2020, following lockdown restrictions being announced by the UK government on 23 March 2020 in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
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Four of the five drug groups used in these statistics saw a fall in levels of prescribing in Q1 2020/21 compared to the previous quarter. Drugs used in psychoses and related disorders was the only group to see an increase.
Resource list
Medicines Used in Mental Health April 2015 to June 2020 - Statistical summary narrative (HTML)
Medicines Used in Mental Health April 2015 to June 2020 - Statistical summary tables (Excel: 143KB)Medicines Used in Mental Health April 2015 to June 2020 - Pre-release access list (PDF: 121KB)Medicines Used in Mental Health April 2015 to June 2020 - Background information and methodology note (PDF: 229KB)Medicines Used in Mental Health April 2015 to June 2020 - User engagement strategy (PDF: 192KB)
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Responsible statistician: Matthew Wilson