NHS releases latest mental health medicines statistics

NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has released its latest Medicines Used in Mental Health (England) report, now including new data from April to June 2023.

The data is presented over a rolling five-year period to help show any trends and patterns.

Key findings show that in this period, 22 million antidepressant items were prescribed to an estimated 6.7 million identified patients.

The cost of prescribed antidepressant items was £60 million; and prescribing of drugs for dementia items remained below expected values based on pre-pandemic trends.

It was also found that prescribing of central nervous system (CNS) stimulants and drugs for ADHD items increased by 3.6% over the same period to 710,000 items, with identified patients increasing by 5.6% to 200,000. These were the largest changes of all drug groups in this publication.

Drugs for dementia also showed an increase of 1% for both prescribing and number of identified patients.

Hypnotics and anxiolytics saw a 2.4% decrease in prescribed items from the previous quarter and 3.2% fewer identified patients.

Drugs used in psychoses and related disorders showed a decrease in prescribing and identified patients, both of less than 1%.

To read the report, click here.