Published 8 December 2022
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 July to September 2022:
- there were an estimated 21.4 million antidepressant drugs items prescribed, an increase of 0.93% from 21.2 million items in the previous quarter
- antidepressant drugs items also increased by 3.22% from 20.8 million items in the same quarter in 2021/22
- drugs for dementia items have shown a 1.68% increase, with an estimated 1.06 million items prescribed in this quarter compared to 1.04 million items in the previous quarter
- drugs for dementia items also increased by 3.27% from 1.02 million items in the same quarter in 2021/22
In the 31-month period since the implementation of lockdown measures during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, between March 2020 and September 2022, there were an estimated:
- 2.77 million more antidepressant prescription items issued than expected based on historical trends, however, this was not a statistically significant increase for the period
- 5.34 million more CNS stimulants and drugs used for ADHD items issued than expected based on historical trends, a statistically significant increase for the period
Resource list
Medicines used in mental health - quarterly summary narrative July to September 2022 (HTML)
Supporting summary tables (Excel: 91KB)
Background information and methodology note (HTML)
User engagement strategy (ODT: 229KB)Pre-release access list (ODT: 218KB)
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Responsible statistician: Grace Libby