A quarter of people are expected to experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England. In any one week, one in five adults in England report having a common mental health condition (CMHC).^1,2

Depression is the second-most common CMCH, affecting 3.8% of the population (generalised anxiety disorder affects 7.5%). Women are more likely to be prescribed an antidepressant than men, in a ratio of approximately 2:1. The peak age for antidepressant prescribing across all adults is 55 to 59 years.^2,3

The number of identified patients has risen at around 200,000 a year since the beginning of 2021, while antidepressant prescription numbers have risen more than 20% in that time. For 2024/25, NHS England says 92.6 million antidepressant items were prescribed to an estimated 8.89 million identified patients, equating to 15% of the population. (NB: antidepressant prescribing data also includes indications other than depression.)^3,4,5

Higher prescribing occurred in the most deprived areas in England, with 42.8% more patients received prescribing for antidepressants in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived.³