Published: 00:01 BST, 25 August 2026 | Updated: 00:10 BST, 25 August 2026
One in seven people in England were prescribed antidepressants last year, worrying figures show.
It comes amid a sharp rise in mental health problems such as depression and anxiety since the pandemic.
A record 9.1million patients were given the drugs by their doctor in the last 12 months, an increase of more than 15 per cent in five years.
There is a stark regional divide with antidepressant use highest in North Cumbria and South Yorkshire, and almost double the rates seen in affluent parts of London.
People in England's most deprived communities received around a third more prescriptions than those in the least disadvantaged parts of the country.
Some 96million antidepressant prescription items were dispensed last year, up 21 per cent on the 79.4million handed out five years earlier, according to the NHS Business Services Authority.
Patients treated under the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board had the highest rate of antidepressant use, with 200 in every 1,000 prescribed medication.
Around 5.9million of all those given the drugs last year were women, accounting for 65 per cent of patients.
The figures come amid a sharp rise in mental health problems such as depression and anxiety – two of the main conditions antidepressants are used to treat – since the pandemic.
The proportion of adults suffering significant symptoms of depression remains almost twice as high as before Covid, rising from 9.7 per cent in 2019 to 18 per cent in April 2025 – equivalent to almost one in five adults – according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Rates are even higher among younger adults, with 26 per cent of those aged 16 to 29 affected – more than one in four. Dr John Read, professor of clinical psychology at the University of East London, said the figures revealed an 'epidemic of overprescribing'.
He added that doctors were increasingly being expected to treat wider social and life problems with medication.
Women are around twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression and prescribed antidepressants as men, although experts disagree on how much of the gap reflects biological differences and how much is due to women being more likely to seek help and discuss their symptoms.
Children have also been affected, with rates of mental illness continuing to rise since the pandemic.
