ALMOST 60,000 prescriptions for antidepressants were issued to patients in the Isle of Man in the last year.

Between April 2010 and April 2011, 58,768 prescriptions were handed out – an increase of 7.6 percent compared to the previous year.

This accounts for 4.2 percent of the total number of prescriptions issued in the year.

The figures were revealed in today's sitting of the House of Keys, after north Douglas MHK John Houghton asked the Minister for Health to divulge what the approximate ratio, per head of population, is of patients receiving antidepressant medication.

Health Minister David Anderson MHK said it would not be possible to "ascertain an accurate ratio without the application of considerable resources."

However he did reveal that the percentage of the adult population on anti-depressants in 2006/2007 could have been 17.7 percent – based on an adult population of 61,497 (2006 census) receiving three monthly prescriptions for a full year. Mr Anderson said this figure could be open to "misinterpretation".

It was also revealed that the percentage increase in prescribing antidepressants over the last five years is 34.9 percent. In the UK the comparative figure is 43 percent.

The figures for the last five years are as follows:

2006/2007 – 43,542 prescriptions for antidepressants
2007/2008 – 47,303 prescriptions for antidepressants
2008/2009 – 49,569 prescriptions for antidepressants
2009/2010 – 54,610 prescriptions for antidepressants
2010/2011 – 58,768 prescriptions for antidepressants

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