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.
Contact Information
Sahdia Hassen
Senior Media and Campaigns Officer
NHS Business Services Authority
Notes to editors
Here’s a summary of findings for each drug category (based on BNF Section*) below.
Hypnotics and anxiolytics –
- 3.4 million hypnotics and anxiolytics items were prescribed to an estimated 1.0 million identified patients.
- The cost of prescribed hypnotics and anxiolytics items was £28 million.
Drugs used in psychoses and related disorders –
- 3.4 million antipsychotic items were prescribed to an estimated 650,000 identified patients.
- The cost of prescribed antipsychotic items was £39 million.
Antidepressant drugs –
- 22 million antidepressant items were prescribed to an estimated 6.8 million identified patients.
- The cost of prescribed antidepressant items was £56 million.
Central nervous system (CNS) stimulants and drugs used for ADHD –
- There were 720,000 CNS stimulants and drugs for ADHD items prescribed to an estimated 210,000 identified patients.
- The cost of prescribed CNS stimulants and drugs for ADHD items was £31 million.
Drugs for dementia –
- 1.1 million drugs for dementia items were prescribed to an estimated 250,000 identified patients.
- The cost of prescribed drugs for dementia items was £6.8 million.
Prescribing during the COVID-19 pandemic –
- Antidepressants and hypnotics and anxiolytics generally remained within the range of expected values, based on pre-pandemic trends.
- Antipsychotics were below the range of expected items in July and September 2023.
- CNS stimulants and drugs for ADHD continued to increase beyond the range of expected items to be prescribed.
Please note:
Prescription ‘items’ refer to individual drugs or inhalers etc. on a prescription form, however a ‘prescription form’ can include multiple medicines on it.
‘Identified patients’ are those patients whose NHS numbers were available (this only excludes a small number), please see the introduction of the report for a full explanation.
These medicines are classified by their main usage. However, they can sometimes be prescribed for other reasons. For example, some antidepressants can be used to treat people suffering from chronic primary pain. We don’t capture this at NHSBSA during processing, and so can’t determine the reason that a prescription was issued.
BNF - This publication uses the British National Formulary (BNF) classification, which lists medicines used in the UK and classifies them according to their primary therapeutic use.