Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the level of prescription of psychiatric drugs to children and young people in each year from 2000 to 2016.

The NHS Business Services Authority can only provide a reliable estimate for the full calendar year January 2016 to December 2016. The number of psychiatric drugs dispensed to children and young people from January 2016 to December 2016 is 1,859,079.

Therapeutic classifications defined in the British National Formulary for Psychiatric drugs have been defined as follows:

4.1 Hypnotics and anxiolytics

4.2 Drugs used in psychoses and related disorders

4.3 Antidepressants

4.4 Central Nervous System stimulants and drugs used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

4.5 Drugs used in the treatment of obesity

4.10 Drugs used in substance dependence

4.11 Drugs for dementia

Not all the products in these sections will be given for a psychiatric use case e.g. drugs used in obesity may or may not be given for a psychiatric use case.