Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from the NHS Business Services Authority. Please would you provide me with data on the number of patients who have had a prescription for an antidepressant in each of the most recent:

• 8 quarters

• 12 quarters

• 16 quarters

• 20 quarters

• in every quarter since data began to be collected in April 2015

To clarify, I am seeking this information relating to any antidepressant and would like this information for England, Scotland and Wales if possible.

Your request was received on 27 March 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

Data Source

NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse

Time Period

Data is included for prescribing from April 2015 to December 2022 inclusive, and presented as patient counts based upon full financial quarters, as held in the NHSBSA data warehouse. For each data point, the time periods are as follows:

Last 8 consecutive quarters: January 2021 to December 2022

Last 12 consecutive quarters: January 2020 to December 2022

Last 16 consecutive quarters: January 2019 to December 2022

Last 20 consecutive quarters: January 2018 to December 2022

All consecutive quarters since April 2015: April 2015 to December 2022.

Contents

The data shows the number of unique patients who have been prescribed one or more items of a medicine from BNF section 4.3 (antidepressant drugs), in consecutive financial quarters, as shown in the data sheet. These totals are based upon consecutive prescribing as measured at the end of the reporting period (December 2022), and should not be read as the total number of patients in receipt of an antidepressant medicine at any point in time.

NHSBSA Prescription Services process prescriptions and information is then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings. This involves processing approximately 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 users.

The data provided includes items that were prescribed in England and dispensed the community only.

Patients who could not be identified by means of a valid NHS number on the prescription form have not been included. The proportion of prescription items of any medicine which can be attributed to identifiable patients, by calendar year, is as follows:

2015** 94.08%

2016 96.42%

2017 97.39%

2018 97.88%

2019 98.10%

2020 98.91%

2021 99.15%

2022 99.15%

** 2015 data for April to December only

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.

Exclusions:

The data excludes -

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

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

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: “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.