Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to provide funding for medical research into alternatives to antidepressant medication.

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds an extensive portfolio of mental health research, including a number of investments focused on alternatives to antidepressant medication. For example, the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre has a dedicated research theme on depression therapeutics and human neurocognitive models of antidepressant action. Additionally, the NIHR invested £1.1 million in a randomised controlled trial to examine if it is feasible, safe, and effective to use psilocybin to treat people with treatment-resistant depression, which was supported by the NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. The study was completed in February 2024 and the full results will be published following peer review. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including alternatives to antidepressant medication.