‘Impossible’ to subscribe for mental health drugs

It would be impossible to have all medications for mental health problems prescribed by a specialist, a senior doctor has said.

John Mitchell, a senior medical adviser to the Scottish Government, said GPS should not prescribe antidepressants to children as this should be done by a specialist mental health service.

But he said extending this advice to cover all medications for mental health would “not be possible”.

The doctor was speaking to Holyrood’s public petitions committee, which is taking evidence on a petition started by a mother whose 16-year-old daughter fatally overdosed.

Annette Mckenzie previously told the committee her daughter Britney, who had informed her doctor she suffered from depression and anxiety and was having suicidal impulses, was prescribed a month’s supply of a betablocker in June 2016.

Sixteen days later, the teenager took a fatal overdose.

Ms Mckenzie, from Glasgow, did not know her daughter had been given the medication. She wants the law changed so under-18s cannot be prescribed drugs to treat mental health issues without parental consent.