Mental Health: Prescription Drugs
(asked on 28th July 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prescriptions have been issued for (1) antidepressants, (2) anxiolytics, (3) sedatives and hypnotics, and (4) antipsychotics, in each month from April to June 2020; and how these figures compare with the same month last year.
The information requested is provided by the NHS Business Services Authority in the following tables.
| Number of items | |||
Month and Year | Antidepressants | Anxiolytics | Barbiturates and Hypnotics | Antipsychotics |
April 2019 | 6,035,028 | 518,035 | 679,445 | 1,010,050 |
May 2019 | 6,450,150 | 553,508 | 716,259 | 1,073,853 |
June 2019 | 6,017,455 | 511,088 | 661,151 | 1,002,933 |
| Number of items | |||
Month and Year | Antidepressants | Anxiolytics | Barbiturates and Hypnotics | Antipsychotics |
April 2020 | 6,481,166 | 521,162 | 692,160 | 1,119,597 |
May 2020 | 6,244,952 | 490,061 | 659,233 | 1,051,130 |
June 2020 | Not yet available | Not yet available | Not yet available | Not yet available |
Notes:
The time periods covered are April 2020 – May 2020 and April 2019 – June 2019 inclusive for comparison.
The term ‘items’ refers to the number of times a product appears on a prescription form, and not the quantity prescribed. The NHS Business Services Authority does not have enough information to determine if a prescription is ‘new’ for a particular patient.
Any secondary indications or unlicensed uses of any of these medicines will not be apparent from the data.
The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in England only.
The data provided is based on English dispensed prescription that were processed by the NHS Business Services Authority; excluding items ‘not dispensed’, ‘disallowed’ and ‘items referred back to the contractor for further clarification’. Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Business Services Authority by the dispenser are also excluded.