LONDON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- One-in-ten adults in England took antidepressant pills last year, a study revealed Saturday.
The study, carried out by the Times newspaper, also showed that last year antidepressant tablets were given to more than 70,000 young people aged under 18, including almost 2,000 of primary school age.
Data supplied to the Times by the National Health Service (NHS) revealed 7.3 million people in England were given at least one antidepressant prescription last year, with people aged over 60 twice as likely as those in their twenties to be on antidepressants.
There was also a huge variation across the country, said the Times, with one in five people in towns such as Blackpool and Great Yarmouth taking anti-depressants, while in London the figure was less than one in ten.
"Prescriptions for antidepressants have doubled in a decade. Britain has the fourth highest use of the pills among western countries, up from sixth in 2013," said the Times, adding the bill for the NHS was more than 300 million U.S. dollars a year.
The Times quoted Andrea Cipriani, a psychiatrist at Oxford University, commenting: "These are very, very high figures. People are prescribing antidepressants to people who don't really need them, who have low mood. It's important people are aware that antidepressants aren't a quick fix."
Cipriani said the risk is medicalising adolescence by using drugs to treat depression in young people.
"We should be careful of prescribing antidepressants to the developing brain. We don't know the long-term consequences," he told the Times.
Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, the body representing family doctors, said: "It's important that these figures aren't automatically seen as a bad thing, as more people had sought help."
Stokes-Lampard told the Times there was a severe lack of other options available to family doctors.
Tom Madders, from the charity YoungMinds, told the newspaper: "Long waiting times and high thresholds for treatment mean that GPs may feel under pressure to prescribe antidepressants to children. There can be a place for medication but it shouldn't be used as a sticking plaster for poor access to talking therapies."
