EXCLUSIVE: Blackpool GPs hand out more anti-depressants than ANYWHERE else in country
Doctors in the resort prescribed over 1.4 MILLION of the drugs - just in the last year.
Last updated 23rd Feb 2017
A Blackpool woman, who has been on anti-depressants since she was 13, is calling for the government to wake up to the scale of the crisis in mental health services.
23-year old Andrea Wade was diagnosed with anxiety and depression when she was 10.
She thinks the drugs aren't the right treatment for everyone, and they're often given out too quickly.
She added:
"I think a lot of the time doctors will just throw medication at people without any other back-up or treatment.
"It's the GP's go-to treatment."
"Medication at first was quite a hard thing for such a young body to cope with. I had to try a lot of different ones until they found one that suited me.
"A lot of people are really reluctant to go on it, because I think a lot of people are scared. There's a lot of stigma and stories about it can make you feel like a zombie or addicted.
"But people wouldn't have the same hesitance to take medication for a physical illness, than they do for mental health."
"For me, it's imperative that I take my medication - I see it as taking a daily vitamin that my body needs.
"For me, the key is talking therapy - it helped me recover alongside my medication and it's sad that there isn't more of it avaliable."
It's as we can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that anti-depressants are being given out by doctors in Blackpool more than ANYWHERE else in the country.
Figures given to us by the NHS reveal GPs in the town have handed out almost 5 million pounds worth of medication in the past four years - £1.4million of that was in the past year alone.
Dr Amanda Doyle, a Blackpool GP and Chief Clinical Officer at NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said:
“As a town, we have more people living with depression in Blackpool than many other areas due to a number of factors. We have areas of significant deprivation, people living in poor quality housing, lots of people with low incomes and high levels of unemployment too. These kind of factors all greatly impact upon a person’s health and wellbeing and so it is no surprise that there is a higher level of depression amongst local people.
“We have worked hard with providers of local mental health services and GPs to ensure there is a good mix of psychological therapy services available for people to access and this has actually reduced the time patients have to wait to get support. However, in many circumstances there is an appropriate need for anti-depressant medication to be prescribed and so we must meet the demand we are presented with.”