FOI-03031

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

##Request 

<p><i>‘In a previous FoI response [Ref: FOI 01343] you provided an excel table showing the number of antidepressant prescriptions issued broken down by the individual ages of the patients.</i></p>

<p><i>Could you provide me with similar tables for 2024, showing for each age (i) the number of prescriptions issued, (ii) the number of unique patients of that age who received an antidepressant prescription and (iii) the total number of unique patients of that age.’</i></p>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 22 July 2025.  

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). 

##Our response 

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached. 

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data. 

##Background 

NHSBSA Prescription Services process prescriptions and information is then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings. This involves processing approximately 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health users. 

##Data Source 

NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse 

##Contents 

Data on prescribing of drugs in British National Formulary (BNF) Section 0403 - Antidepressants 

##Time Period 

The data covers the 2024 calendar year (January 2024 to December 2024). 

##Organisation level 

The data is shown for all prescribing in England. 

##Patient counts 

Patients who could not be identified by means of a valid NHS number on the prescription are excluded.  

The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided, as this may result in the double-counting of patients. 

A patient NHS number could be associated with 99.24% of all prescription items in this dataset. This means that 0.76% of prescription items were excluded from the data due to unidentifiable patients. 

##Drugs 

All drugs in BNF Section 0403: Antidepressants are classified by their primary therapeutic indication. However, we do not capture the clinical reason why a drug has been prescribed and drugs may be prescribed for reasons outside of its primary use. Therefore, statistics on these drugs do not relate solely to prescribing for depression. 

##Age 

Patient age in the data has been taken as the maximum recorded age for the patient within the calendar year. This means that a patient who is prescribed antidepressants aged 50 and 51 in the same year will be recorded only once, as aged 51. This is to reduce the risk of double-counting as patients age throughout each calendar year.  

patients for whom no age was recorded in a year are listed as age 'UNKNOWN',  

patients aged 110 or older are grouped together as '110+'. 

##List Size 

The number of patients registered with the practice (including temporary residents and over 65s). List size is recorded monthly, and at practice level. The list size for this data set is calculated as the average total list size for all practices within each year. 

##Exclusions 

The data excludes items dispensed in prisons, hospitals and private prescriptions, but does include dental, prison and hospital prescriptions which are dispensed in the community.  

If a prescription was issued but not presented for dispensing or was not submitted to NHSBSA Prescription Services by the dispenser, then it is not included in the data provided. 

##Data Queries 

Please contact <a href=mailto:foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a> ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data. 

##Reusing the data and copyright 

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact <a href=mailto:communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a>. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented. 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: 

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/  

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2025”. Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence. 

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information. 

Tags: Antidepressants, NHS Prescriptions
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log