MORE than a quarter of patients on antidepressants in England – about two million people – have been taking them for five years, the BBC has found.
This is despite there being limited evidence of the benefits of taking the drugs for that length of time.
A doctor who runs an NHS clinic helping people off the pills says withdrawal symptoms can make it hard for some to stop taking their medication.
Withdrawal guidance was updated in 2019, but he says little has changed.
More than eight million people in England are on antidepressants – which are prescribed for depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder and other conditions. That’s one million more people than five years previously, NHS prescribing figures show.
The new figures on long-term use – for the period 2018-2022 – were provided to BBC Panorama by the NHS, following a Freedom of Information request. The data gives an overall picture but does not reflect the circumstances of individual patients, some of whom could be on antidepressants long-term for good reason.
The investigation also uncovered evidence that a leading drug company attempted 27 years ago to conceal possible withdrawal effects that one drug could cause.
Modern antidepressants – called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors) – arrived from the late 1980s, including Prozac. They were quickly heralded as wonder drugs compared with earlier medications, some of which had serious side effects.
They were thought to treat depression by fixing an imbalance of the mood-regulating chemical serotonin in the brain. Researchers are now not clear how they work. One theory is that they simply change how you think or feel, rather than rectifying an underlying problem.
The NHS recommends antidepressants as a treatment for more severe depression. Talking therapy as well as exercise and lifestyle changes might be recommended instead of, or in combination with, the medication.
“Throughout my long and extensive career, I have seen people benefit from antidepressants,” said Prof Wendy Burn, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
“I see them working in my clinical practice, I see lives being changed by them.”
But she added: “People are staying on antidepressants longer, and we don’t really have long-term studies that support that.”
There has long been a debate about how effective antidepressants are. The most comprehensive research, from the University of Oxford, suggests antidepressants do help some people, at least in the short-term.
But on average, their benefits are relatively modest, and the way people respond varies, with some not responding at all, according to the researcher who led the study.
And there is some evidence to suggest that long-term antidepressant use may be linked to some health risks, such as heart problems and diabetes. It is also thought that long-term use may lead to a higher risk of withdrawal symptoms in some people.