Anti-depressants 'are vastly over-prescribed'

MEDICAL experts were expected to today claim that anti-depressants are being vastly over-prescribed.

Serious concerns about the widespread use of anti-depressants such as Seroxat and Prozac were to be spelled out by two bodies regulating the safety and use of medicines in Britain.

The Government’s drugs regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), was expected to outline the findings of a review on the suitability of such drugs.

The body was due to advise people with mild to moderate depression or anxiety to seek alternative treatment to the drugs, known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), such as therapy or daily exercise.

Every year in Britain, some 13 million prescriptions are written out for SSRIs, such as Prozac.

But the MHRA has reportedly concluded GPs have been prescribing powerful pills unnecessarily to hundreds of thousands of people who do not have a serious clinical condition.

The drugs have enjoyed popularity over the past decade because they are much safer, with fewer side effects than the older tricyclic drugs which could easily kill patients who overdose.

But concerns about them have emerged in recent years. Last year the Government banned their prescription to under-18s after they were linked to a number of suicides in young people in the UK and the US.

European health authorities have also warned that extra care should be taken in prescribing SSRIs to people aged under 30.

The announcement was due to be made as guidelines to the NHS on the treatment of depression and anxiety are published by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), which provides guidelines for England and Wales.

A spokesman for the MHRA said the review covered all aspects of treating depression as well as looking at the uses of SSRIs.

Officials with the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)- the organisation which sets guidelines for which treatments are recommended within the NHS north of the Border - today confirmed they would consider the MHRA report.

Such drugs have also been subjected to intensive scrutiny by Westminster’s health select committee as part of an investigation into the influence of the pharmaceutical industry.

MPs on the committee have heard concerns from campaigners that anti-depressants were prescribed too liberally, with the result that millions of people are taking them with little benefit.

Concerns about the pills’ addictive nature have led to fears that patients find it difficult to come off them.

Professor David Healy, a psychopharmacologist at Cardiff University, who has given evidence to the health select committee,

said: "The MHRA should concentrate on telling people a little bit more about the risk of them getting hooked on anti-depressants, rather than simply warning the drugs should not be prescribed to those who are anxious."