New figures released by the NHS in Britain reveal that the use of antidepressants has increased by nearly 30 percent in the last three years, costing the government more than £11 billion annually in lost earnings. According to the figures released by the NHS Information Center, the use of antidepressants increased by 28 percent, up from 34 million prescriptions in 2007-08 to 43.4 million in 2010-11. The use of sleeping pills too has gone up by nearly 3 percent while prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs rose from six million to 6.5 million in the same period.
A study conducted by the House of Commons found that the rise in depression is costing the country more than £11 billion annually with £8.97 billion in lost earnings while treating depression costs more than £520 million for the NHS.
Commenting on the findings, Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, who commissioned the research, said, “Failure to tackle depression hurts us all. It makes a misery of the lives of sufferers, costs the NHS in terms of time and medication and hampers business by forcing some people out of work.”
Source-Medindia