Mental Health Services

(asked on 23rd April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of prescription rates of (a) mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and (b) anti-depressants as a means to treat and prevent mental ill health.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 29th April 2019

Data on prescribing mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is not collected. However, NHS England reports that the number of people accessing psychological therapies is rising, with 1.01 million people starting treatment in 2017-18.

NHS Digital published data in March 2019 which indicated that the levels of prescriptions for antidepressants has risen in recent years.

It is important that increasing numbers of antidepressant prescriptions are not automatically seen as a bad thing, as research has shown they can be very effective drugs when used appropriately.

It is the responsibility of all prescribers to prescribe responsibly and appropriately, to meet the individual needs of their patients. There is a place for both drugs and psychological therapies in the treatment of mental health conditions.

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