Thank you for your request for information about the following:

1 - The number of people prescribed anti depressant drugs by NHS GP surgeries in England each year since 2017. If possible, I would like this data to contain quantified specification of

a. The drugs being prescribed, by either number of prescriptions per drug or by percentage of total number of anti-depressants prescribed that year, each year since 2017.

b. The mental health conditions listed as accompanying anti depressant prescriptions, presented with each condition shown as a percentage, each year since 2017.

2 - The number of times each drug has been reported by patients as having caused negative side effects, with data listing each specific side effect, each year since 2017.

3 - The total number of GP appointments held with a patient prescribed an anti depressant drug within 3 months of their initial prescription, each year since 2017.

4 - The number of people prescribed anti-depressants who were also placed on NHS waiting lists for counselling, either at the same time or within 3 months before or after their initial prescription, each year since 2017.

You subsequently clarified that for 1a, GP practices (accumulated) showing number of items and number of patients as per the drug presentation, is acceptable.

Your clarified request was received on 10th March 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Question 1a

A copy of the information is attached.

Prescribing of Antidepressant drugs (BNF Section 0403) in England by GP Practices

NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for Pharmacy Contractors, Appliance Contractors, Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration with information then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors in England for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (other arrangements are in place for making payments to Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration). This involves processing over 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.

Data source: ePACT2

Data in ePACT2 is sourced from the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse and is derived from products prescribed on prescriptions and dispensed in the Community. The data captured from prescription processing is used to calculate reimbursement and remuneration. It includes items prescribed in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey and Isle of Man which have been dispensed in the community in England. English prescribing that has been dispensed in Wales, Scotland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey and Isle of Man is also included.

The Data excludes:

• Items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification.

• Prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in Prisons, Hospitals and Private prescriptions.

• Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.

Time period:

Calendar Years (Jan-Dec) 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Organisation Data:

The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England by GP Practices.

Data:

Restricted to items prescribed from BNF Section 0403 – Antidepressant drugs.

BNF Code:

The BNF Code is a 15-digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF and the last 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. The majority of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).

Items:

Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.

Patient Identification:

Where patient identifiable figures have been reported they are based on the information captured during the prescription processing activities. Please note, patient details cannot be captured from every prescription form and based on the criteria used for this analysis, patient information (NHS number) was only available for 98.95% of prescription items.

The patient count figures are based on a distinct count of NHS number as captured from the prescription image.

The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided as this may result in the double-counting of patients. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple calendar years.

Questions 1b, 2, 3, 4

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

However it is possible that MHRA may hold some or all of the information you require for questions 1b and 2. They can be contacted at:

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Customer Services

10 South Colonnade

London

E14 4PU

United Kingdom

Email info@mhra.gov.uk

Website https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/medicines-and-healthcare-products-regulatory-agency

It is possible that NHS England may hold some or all of the information you require for questions 3 and 4. They can be contacted at:

NHS England

PO Box 16738

Redditch

B97 9PT

Telephone 0300 311 22 33

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

Web http://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/foi/

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact foidata@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data, please contact nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “ePACT2, NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated.

Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.