Two million people on antidepressants for more than five years

Two million people in England have been on antidepressants for five years despite limited evidence of the benefits of taking the drugs long-term.

Prescriptions have risen steeply in recent years, a trend thought to reflect pandemic pressures and long waits for access to talking therapies.

There are now more than eight million people in England taking antidepressants, which are used to treat conditions including depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Figures on long-term prescribing released by the NHS to BBC’s Panorama programme under freedom of information laws show that more than a quarter of those people had been on them for at least five years.

Professor Wendy Burn, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists told the BBC: “Throughout my long and extensive

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