Mental health: prescribed drugs for anxiety, depression or psychosis
Data on prescribing for mental health conditions are routinely published in Scotland.
Hypnotics and anxiolytics
In 2019/20, approximately 355,000 patients were dispensed at least one hypnotic or anxiolytic drug (1630kB). These data are based on prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacists, appliance suppliers and dispensing doctors only. Over the last 10 years there has been a small decline in the quantity of these drugs dispensed. In 2019/20, 62% of patients who received treatment with a hypnotic or anxiolytic drug were female, while 38% were male.
A breakdown by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) showed greater dispensing hypnotics and anxiolytics with increasing level of deprivation.
Drugs used in psychoses
The rate of use of drugs dispensed for psychoses and related disorders (1630kB) has increased in Scotland over the past ten years, from 9.9 defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 population per day in 2010/11, to 11.8 DDD per 1,000 population per day in 2019/20. There is a clear gradient in number of patients receiving drugs dispensed for psychoses and related disorders by SIMD, and greater dispensing is seen with increasing level of deprivation.
Antidepressants
The rate of use of antidepressants (1630kB) has increased in Scotland in the past 10 years, from 112 DDD per 1,000 population per day in 2010/11 to 187 DDD per 1,000 population per day in 2019/20.
Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.
