Antidepressants: Prescriptions
(asked on 23rd February 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS prescriptions for antidepressants have been prescribed to patients (1) of all ages, (2) under 25 years old, and (3) under 18 years old, in each year since 2015.
The following table shows the number of National Health Service prescription items classified as antidepressants by age group for each year from 2015/16 to 2024/25:
Financial year | All ages | Under 25 years old | Under 18 years old |
2015/16 | 61,903,886 | 2,477,798 | 312,113 |
2016/17 | 65,590,427 | 2,759,953 | 332,706 |
2017/18 | 68,279,423 | 2,910,607 | 346,126 |
2018/19 | 71,765,790 | 3,202,784 | 367,850 |
2019/20 | 76,329,800 | 3,525,602 | 393,762 |
2020/21 | 79,410,554 | 3,890,347 | 406,391 |
2021/22 | 83,438,128 | 4,170,154 | 437,365 |
2022/23 | 86,263,722 | 4,119,463 | 448,515 |
2023/24 | 89,131,582 | 4,033,211 | 435,992 |
2024/25 | 92,642,110 | 4,005,259 | 410,772 |
2025/26 | 47,327,223 | 1,935,508 | 169,147 |
Note: data for 2025/26 is from April to September.
The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold data on the clinical indication of a prescription and therefore does not know which prescriptions were prescribed for depression. Many drugs have multiple uses, for example, some drugs that are classified as antidepressants can be issued to treat migraine, chronic pain, myalgic encephalomyelitis, and a range of other conditions.