Lack of specialist help linked to rising prescription levels

Warning of delays as doctors give more patients anti-depressants

A LACK of access to psychological services has been blamed for soaring levels of prescriptions being handed out by doctors.

Former psychiatrist Dr Richard Simpson said delays in securing specialist help to patients made it more likely medication would be used, but he said it was simplistic to criticise over-prescribing.

It comes as figures showed rising numbers of patients were being prescribed anti-depressants and drugs to combat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Around 6.1 million anti-depressants were prescribed this year, a rise of 600,000 in two years, at a cost of £44 million, according to official statistics from ISC Scotland. doctors for ADHD treatments such as Ritalin, the vast majority prescribed to children, has also risen from 105,000 items prescribed in 2013-15 to 112,000 last year and 123,222 this year.

But Dr Richard Simpson said that hyperactive children and adults with mental health problems may need more medication rather than less and to be using prescriptions for longer.

And he claimed many Scots suffered lengthy waits for psychological services which could be accessed more quickly in England.

Rocketing prescriptions for anti-depressants are a sign that the Scottish Government had failed, the Scottish Conservatives said.

They said the figures are run counter to an SNP pledge to cut the increase in prescriptions to zero in 2007, and then to further cut prescribing by 10 per cent. The pledge was later abandoned.

The Tories’ mental health spokesman, Miles Briggs, said: “There will always be a place for medication such as this to treat depression.

“But we are seeing increasing numbers of people put on these pills, and many are concerned there isn’t a proper strategy for getting them off the medication again.”

But Dr Simpson, a former Labour MSP, said such arguments were simplistic and called for a review of variation in prescribing levels across the country.

“One of the big problems is that many GPs were not prescribing in sufficient quantities or for sufficient lengths of time,” he said. “Healthcare Improvement Scotland should be inspecting to see what the reasons are for these increases.”

A key problem is a lack of swift access to psychological treatments, he said. “If it is hard to access other treatment, GPs will prescribe drugs more,” he said.

“But they are under pressure to reduce prescribing costs so one of the things we know is that they often prescribe for too short a time to be effective.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said waiting lists had decreased despite more people seeking help. Reducing stigma was one reason more people were coming forward for treatment, she added: “We have better identification of those requiring treatment.”