Published 8 July 2021
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
Between January to March 2021:
-
there were 20.2 million antidepressant drugs prescribed, a 1% decrease from 20.5 million items in the previous quarter, and a 3% increase from 19.6 million items for the same quarter in 2019/20.
-
drugs for dementia continued to show a downward trend with 982,000 items prescribed, a 4% decrease from 1.02 million items in the previous quarter, and a 6% decrease from 1.05 million items in the same quarter in 2019/20.
In the 13 month period since the implementation of lockdown measures during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, between March 2020 and March 2021:
-
there were 803,000 more antidepressant prescription items issued than expected based on historical trends. However, this was not a statistically significant increase for the period.
-
there were 363,000 fewer drugs for dementia prescription items issued than expected based on historical trends. This was a statistically significant decrease for the period.
Resource List
Medicines Used in Mental Health - Quarterly summary narrative January to March 2021 (HTML)
Supporting summary tables (Excel: 149KB)Background information and methodology note (PDF: 235KB)User engagement strategy (PDF: 192KB)Pre-release access list (PDF: 125KB)
Feedback
We're collecting feedback about our publications. You can complete a short survey to help us make our statistical releases more useful and accessible.
The survey takes about 5 minutes to complete. All responses will remain anonymous and you will not be identifiable in any report we produce. You can view our privacy policy to see how your data is used and stored.
Contact us
If you have any questions, comments, or would like more information you can email statistics@nhsbsa.nhs.uk
Responsible statistician: Matthew Wilson