Doctors in the UK are prescribing more antidepressants than ever, according to the latest figures from NHS Digital. So is depression on the rise? Are GPs like me prescribing drugs too quickly? Or could it be that too many people are taking their medication for too long?
Recent research by a team from the University of Southampton suggests that at least one in ten of the adult population is on some form of daily antidepressant, and that about half of them have been taking their medication for two years or more. It is this move towards longer-term therapy, rather than an increase in diagnosis or starting too many people on the drugs, that is thought to be the main driver behind the rise in prescribing.
