Rise of anti-depressants use in children, WHO warns

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised concerns regarding the rise in prescriptions of anti-depressants among children.

In a new study, the WHO examined the use of the drug between 2005-2012 and found that there was a 54 per cent increase in the number of young people being prescribed anti-depressant medicines.

The figures show there have also been rises of prescriptions in Denmark (60 per cent), Germany (49 per cent), the US (26 per cent) and the Netherlands (17 per cent), over the same period of time.

The research, which was published in the European Journal of Neuropsychoparmacology, raised serious concerns regarding the over prescription and use of antidepressants in children.

Dr Shekhar Saxena, director of mental health for WHO, said: “Anti-depressant use amongst young people is and has been a matter of concern because of two reasons. One, are more people being prescribed anti-depressants without sufficient reason? And second, can anti-depressants do any major harm?"

The research also outlines the prevalence of the prescription of off-label drugs where children were issued with medicines which are not licensed to be used by under-18s.

Saxena said: "These are medicines which have not been tried amongst young people, and have no justification for being used widely in young people. There are legal regulations and professional guidelines and off-label use of drugs many times crosses both of them. That's something the WHO is very concerned about."

Currently, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines direct that anti-depressants should not be offered to children suffering from mild cases of depression.

However, according to Dr Rebecca Payne, of the College of General Practitioners, GPs are now abiding by the NICE guidelines, with anti-depressants only being prescribed at a specialist level. Payne identified problems in the system, particularly in assessing treatments for children showing moderate symptoms of depression.

Payne said: "The mild end the school counsellors pick up. The more severe end can access specialist psychological and psychiatric help. The problem is everybody in the middle, and these are the groups that we might have prescribed anti-depressants to in the past.”