An average of 2,545 children under 12 per year were taking antidepressants from 2020 to 2025, NHS figures obtained through a freedom of information request show. Clinical guidelines state that children should be assessed by a psychiatrist before being prescribed antidepressants, but some GPs feel forced to prescribe outside these guidelines due to skyrocketing demand. According to BBC News - England, Gloucestershire GP Tom Sutherland described GPs as being in a difficult situation where access to a specialist may be 18 months to two years away, leaving them with no good choice between not prescribing and acting outside guidance.
Child referrals to mental health services regularly reached more than 100,000 a month since 2022, up from a monthly average of 45,850 in 2017, NHS England reported. Overall, 4.1 million people were in contact with mental health services in England last year, up from 2.6 million a decade before. The mental health workforce has been boosted by two fifths since 2019, according to NHS England. In the North East of England, around one in four people are taking antidepressants, according to NHS data analysis by MyHealthPal. According to Daily Mail - Health, Matt Hall, director at MyHealthPal, described prescribing as shaped by what options are available, with medication often becoming the only realistic way to offer support when talking therapy waits are long.
GPs often find themselves in a really difficult situation where [a patient's] access to that specialist will be 18 months or two years away.
Antidepressants can be prescribed to young people for depression, anxiety, bedwetting, and pain. NHS England states that antidepressants should only be prescribed alongside other mental health support. However, the exact number of under-18s prescribed antidepressants each year is uncertain, as is the breakdown by age group and condition. Waiting times for specialist mental health services for children and adolescents, as well as long-term outcomes for those prescribed without prior psychiatric assessment, remain unclear.
They're forced into a position where they can either not prescribe that medication, and there's a potential harm there to the patient by being left untreated, or they can act outside of guidance and initiate that medication.
There's no good choice for GPs in the system as it is at the moment.
If you look at this day-to-day, it makes sense. Prescribing isn't happening in a vacuum, it's shaped by what options are actually available to people at that moment.
In parts of the North East, GPs are dealing with higher demand and fewer immediate alternatives. If someone comes in struggling and the wait for talking therapy is months long, then medication often becomes the only realistic way to offer support there and then. It's not necessarily the ideal pathway, but it's the one that's accessible.