Thank you for your request for information about the following:

‘1. Number of antidepressant prescriptions for children and young people made in primary care without the recommended involvement of a relevant specialist in England between 2019 and 2023 2. types of antidepressants prescribed to children and young people by GPs in England between 2019 and 2023.

[On 21 September 2023 we sent you the following request for clarification]

‘Question 1

We do not hold data regarding the number of antidepressant prescriptions for children and young people made in primary care without the recommended involvement of a relevant specialist.

Question 2

Can you please clarify what you require with regards to ‘types’ of antidepressants?

We do not hold the clinical condition as to why something was prescribed, we categorise the data according to the British National Formulary (BNF).

To help specify a list of 'types' we can match to our data source please use the BNF Code Information found in the NHSBSA Information Services Portal (Drug Data).

https://applications.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/infosystems/home/homepage.do

You can filter on the BNF Section Antidepressant drugs. Then specify how you want BNF section Antidepressant data to be broken down (BNF Paragraph, Chemical Substance, Product, or presentation).

Can you please specify the ages of children and young people required and how you want that data represented? For example, aged 17 and under.

Do you want antidepressant data prescribed by GPs only, or data prescribed by all NHS prescribers subsequently dispensed in the community?

Is a list of ‘types’ only required between 2019 and 2023? Or do you require prescription data? Number of Identified Patients, Items, Net Ingredient Cost (£)?

Do you require the time period aggregated or broken down?’

[On 21 September 2023 you clarified your request as follows]

‘I would like to know the number of antidepressant prescriptions by GPs alone for children and young people aged between 7 and 17 in England between 2019 and 2023. I would also like to know which antidepressants were prescribed to the same sample of individuals during the same period, number of identified patients, items and Net Ingredient Cost. I would like to obtain broken down data for the time frame mentioned above.’

[On 25 September 2023 we sent you the following request for clarification]

Can you please confirm the data you require is children aged 7 to 17 aggregated (not each 1 year age band - 7,8 etc to 17)? Do you require the time period aggregated or broken down? If you require it broken down, please specify whether you would like this monthly or annually.

With regards to ‘which antidepressants were prescribed’, how do you require this data to be broken down? BNF Paragraph, Chemical Substance, Product, or presentation?

[On 25 September 2023 you clarified your request as follows]

I'd like to obtain data on each age band (between 7 and 17), for the time period 2019-2023 broken down annually.

When it comes to my request on antidepressants, I'd like to know which drugs were most prescribed (names/product) and for what conditions (anxiety, depression etc)’

Your request was received on 19 September 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached. Please note that no data is captured on the prescription form about the clinical indication for which a prescription is intended.

Prescribing in England for antidepressants (BNF 0403) at presentation level prescribed by General Practitioner for patients aged 7 to 17 including the number of unique patients.

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 one 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.

Time Period

Calendar years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 (part only).

July 2023 is the latest data available, therefore calendar year 2023 is January to July 2023.

Organisation Data

The data is for prescriptions prescribed in England by a General Practitioner regardless of where dispensed in the community.

Data

This dataset is limited to the prescribing of products in BNF section 0403 antidepressants prescribed by General Practitioner for patients aged 7 to 17 including the number of unique identified patients for these ages.

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 eight 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 one to 15. Many such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).

Patient aged 7-17

Shows the age of the patient.

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 99.5% of prescription items.

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

Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing/dispensing. Please note it is possible that a single patient may be included in the results for more than one age band where a patient has received prescribing at different ages during the time period.

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 age bands, years and / or prescribed products.

Items

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

Net Ingredient Cost (£)

Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Community Pharmacy England the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price.

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 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:

“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.