Hansard

Antidepressants

Volume 479: debated on Thursday 17 July 2008

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David Simpson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have been prescribed anti-depressant medication in each of the last three years, broken down by region; and what percentage of the population of each region each represents. (218862)

Dawn Primarolo

Information on the number of people prescribed a medicine is not collected centrally therefore we are unable to provide the information requested. However, the number of prescription items prescribed for antidepressant medication1 is shown in the following table.

1 Antidepressant medication has been defined as those products included in the British National Formulary chapter 4.3—antidepressant drugs.

Thousand

Strategic health authority

2005

2006

2007

East Midlands

2,524.3

2,670.7

2,962.7

East of England

3,301.6

3,516.2

3,851.0

London

2,692.2

2,863.7

3,114.1

North East

1,995.4

2,130.2

2,344.5

North West

5,085.7

5,297.8

5,704.4

South Central

2,240.8

2,376.3

2,583.4

South East Coast

2,233.2

2,375.3

2,591.3

South West

3,071.3

3,269.8

3,590.5

West Midlands

2,839.3

3,006.4

3,277.1

Yorkshire and the Humber

3,406.0

3,531.6

3,820.8

Total

29,389.8

31,038.0

33,839.8

Source:

Prescription Cost Analysis