Anti-depressants Mr. Lansley To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) children and (b) adults were prescribed anti-depressants in each year since 1997. Dawn Primarolo Anti-depressant drugs are classified under section 4.3 of the British National Formulary (BNF) and the information in the following table is provided on this basis. Estimated figures are based on a sample of one in 20 prescriptions and have been grossed up to reflect the population totals and rounded. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |BNF 4.3—prescription items dispensed (thousand)|Estimate of prescription items dispensed for children (thousand)|Percentage dispensed to children| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1997 |16,822.6 |88 |0.5 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1998 |18,424.5 |84 |0.5 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1999 |20,108.1 |83 |0.4 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2000 |22,021.8 |95 |0.4 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2001 |24,342.7 |110 |0.5 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2002 |26,329.3 |120 |0.5 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2003 |27,658.0 |110 |0.4 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2004 |28,995.5 |94 |0.3 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2005 |29,389.9 |110 |0.4 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2006 |31,038.0 |110 |0.4 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Source:Prescription Cost Analysis system| | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------