Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I would like to submit an additional request under the Freedom of Information Act, expanding on the below.

Please could you send me data on the total number of patients who have had at least one prescription for an antidepressant in each of the years covered below?

Ie January to December:

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

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

Your request was received on 16th May and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

Number of unique identified patients prescribed an item in England from BNF section 0403 Antidepressant drugs that was dispensed in the community

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 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.

This dataset shows the number of unique patients prescribed at least one item in BNF section 0403 Antidepressant drugs in the stated time periods.

*Please note patient data is only available from April 2015.

Time Period - Calendar years:

*2015 – Part only (April to December)

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Organisation Data

The data is at national level and is for items prescribed in England and dispensed in the community only.

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 (age and nhs number) was available for the following:

2015 – 94.08% of prescription items
2016 – 96.42% of prescription items
2017 – 97.39% of prescription items
2018 – 97.88% of prescription items
2019 – 98.10% of prescription items
2020 – 98.91% of prescription items
2021 – 99.15% of prescription items
2022 – 99.15% 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 financial years, age bands and CCGs.

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data please contact foirequests@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 communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk 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.