A new Public Health Scotland report shows more antidepressants were dispensed in the financial year 2025/26 than ever before.
Roughly 8.6m items were dispensed, a 14.9 per cent increase from the number dispensed in 2020/21.
One increasingly popular antidepressant, Sertraline, was behind half of that increase.
It has been revealed that 23,000 antidepressant products are being taken every day in Scotland.
The issue of overprescribing antidepressants has become increasingly politicised across the country, as the SNP pledged to stop prescriptions increasing as far back as 2007 in their manifesto.
This is despite the fact Scotland’s prescriptions are increasing at a slower rate than its UK neighbours, with England experiencing a 20.3 per cent increase in the same time.
Scottish Conservative MP Miles Briggs said it is “very worrying to see tens of thousands more Scots requiring medication for depression and anxiety.”
The Scottish Labour Party has previously voiced similar concerns, with its mental health spokesman in 2024, Paul Sweeney, opining that antidepressants “should not be a substitute for lack of resources elsewhere.”
Mental health funding concerns have already been at the centre of recent news in Scotland, with the Edinburgh Crisis Centre facing potential cuts from Edinburgh’s Integration Joint Board (IJB).
The SNP, too, is no stranger to partisan criticism on healthcare policies, particularly the national drug deaths crisis.
Leader of Reform UK in Scotland Malcolm Offord had urged John Swinney earlier this month to replace a planned debate on Europe with a deliberation on the crisis.
As drug deaths continue to climb, above all other European countries, it is clear that debates on both rehabilitation, supported by Swinney, and use of antidepressants, will continue.
Photo by Myriam Zilles on Unsplash
