NHS releases latest mental health medicines statistics

NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has released its latest Medicines Used in Mental Health (England) report, now including new data from July to September 2023.

The data is presented over a rolling five-year period in the summary narratives to help show any trends and patterns.

Key findings show that in this period, there were 22 million antidepressants prescribed to an estimated 6.8 million identified patients. This was a small increase in items and identified patients compared to the previous quarter, at 1.5% for items and less than one percentage point for patients.

Over the same period, prescribing of hypnotics and anxiolytics items increased by 1% to 3.4 million and identified patients increased by 1.4% to 1 million.

Drugs used in psychoses and related disorders also saw 3.4 million items prescribed, a 1.3% increase. There was an increase of less than 1% for identified patients, to 650,000.

Prescribing of Central nervous system (CNS) stimulants and drugs for ADHD items also increased by less than one percentage point, to 720,000 items. Identified patients increased by 2.6% to 210,000 patients.

The number of drugs for dementia items prescribed increased by 3.1% to 1.1 million. This was the largest percentage increase in items out of the drug groups in this publication. Identified patients increased by 2.3%.

Total Net ingredient Cost (NIC) decreased for antidepressants, hypnotics and anxiolytics, and antipsychotics, despite increases in identified patients and items in these drug groups. The total NIC increased for CNS stimulants and drugs for ADHD, and drugs for dementia. Antidepressants had the largest change in total NIC of the drug groups in this publication, with a 6.8% decrease.