Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has issued guidance on prescribing psychotropic medicines; and if so, what precautions are advised to ensure that prescribed drugs are suitable for individual patients and that their use is not unnecessarily prolonged.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued a large range of guidance covering the use of psychotropic medicines, including through its clinical guidelines programme. NICE clinical guidelines provide detailed guidance for healthcare professionals and should be taken fully into account by prescribers in the care of individual patients.

NICE is also scheduled to develop a clinical guideline on the safe prescribing and withdrawal management of prescribed drugs that is expected to begin in early 2019.

We have taken the term ‘psychotropic medicines’ to refer to all psychiatric medication that is used to treat mental illnesses: this includes antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilisers.