Is anyone really surprised by this?
Prescriptions for antidepressants have risen by 43% in the past four years to nearly 23 million a year, NHS figures reveal.
The Guardian last month revealed a north-south divide in the prescription of antidepressants, with GPs in Blackpool, Salford, and Redcar and Cleveland making the most prescriptions.
Now data obtained from the NHS Prescription Services by the BBC show a dramatic increase in the number of prescriptions for antidepressants between 2006 and 2010.
Money worries and job insecurity are thought to be behind the rising figures. GPs and charities said more people were coming to them struggling with debt and job concerns.
They said financial woes could often act as a “trigger”, but added other factors may also be playing a role in the rise.
As a connoisseur of the new Prozac, Citalopram, this doesn’t in the least surprise me.
Furthermore
“The financial strain on many people has never been worse. They are worried about their spiralling bills and where the next meal is coming from. It can make you feel very down, and it soon becomes a cycle.
But, never fear, care services minister, Paul Burstow has said there will be boosting funding for talking therapies by £400m. Overall, the amount is a drop in the financial ocean….!!
Yes, I am sure (certainly in my own case) there are various factors interacting with debt problems and financial problems. Is this the tip of the iceberg?
With recession along with the expectation of more pain courtesy of the ConDems by way of attacks on the public sector. This means changes in working practices and conditions, modernisation, restructuring, liberalisation, contracting-out, outsourcing and what other words used as a code for privatisation will have a massive emotional and psychological negative impact on people, which will affect their health as we have seen. Recession means depression, with a swirling mix of a potent cocktail of anxiety, fear, alienation, pressure, stress and atomisation. No wonder people are reaching for the meds.
Big depressed society!
I can no longer afford my antidepressants. As such, I dose myself with NyQuil every night just so I can manage to sleep.
How can you no longer afford them? Free on income support (I think) and if not, £104 pa buys unlimited prescriptions for a year.
Er, Laban, she is actually based in the States.