Prescription Drugs
(asked on 19th February 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of unique patients who have been prescribed (a) anti-depressants and (b) opioids, including the duration of those prescription in each of the last full two years for which data is available.
The information is not held in the requested format. NHS Business Services Authority does not hold data relating to the dosage or the time period for which drugs are prescribed.
Provided in the table below are the number of unique patients who have been prescribed anti-depressants and opioids for the last full two years for which data is available.
Period | Drug Group | Number of unique identifiable patients | Proportion of Items where patient could be identified |
January 2016 - December 2016 | Antidepressants | 7,038,347 | 96.27% |
January 2017 - December 2017 | Antidepressants | 7,252,924 | 97.33% |
January 2016 - December 2016 | Opioids | 3,156,156 | 94.04% |
January 2017 - December 2017 | Opioids | 3,131,472 | 95.10% |