More than a million Scots – almost a quarter of the adult population – are taking antidepressants, according to new data.
The number of patients taking the medication has been rising quickly since 2010, when 630,000 people were taking them. By 2019-20 the figure had increased to 967,000, a rise of 43 per cent in a decade. Now, for the first time, the number has topped one million.
The statistics from Public Health Scotland, reported in The Mail on Sunday, show that 1,020,000 people aged 18 and older were on antidepressants this month.
The medication was prescribed at a rate of 22,000 items a day last year, at a cost of £35.9 million.
Maurice Golden, a Conservative MSP, said the latest figures were “astonishing”.