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Some 33.8 million individual medications were prescribed in England in 2007, but by 2017 that number had grown to 67.5million. Doctors criticised for dishing out pills say access to NHS psychological therapies remains too slow and urgently needs to improve. In November, 144,722 new referrals were received for treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) but just 99,416 started as the system struggles under weight of demand.

Dr Sarah Jarvis, a GP and director at Patient.info, said: "GPs are certainly not handing out antidepressants willy-nilly but we have undoubtedly seen an increase in instances of patients with depression. "For those with mild or moderate symptoms we look to make lifestyle changes or get them access to counselling. But the simple fact of the matter is waiting times are far too long in some areas and patients may need something in the interim." While huge strides have been made breaking down the stigma surrounding depression, anxiety and other debilitating illnesses, access to professionals remains a postcode lottery. Medication is meant to be prescribed alongside talking treatments like CBT but experts say in too many cases patients are just taking drugs. In 2017, the latest figures available, NHS Digital data showed three antidepressants were among the top prescriptions.

The number of antidepressant drugs dished out by GPs have doubled in a decade

Citalopram was issued 14.2million times, Amitriptyline Hydrochloride was given out on 13.2million occasions and Sertraline Hydrochloride 12.9million times. Combined, they total more than the most common 32% of young people a year to start drug in England, the statin Atorvastatin, which was prescribed 37.3million times. Dr Ian Campbell, a GP in Nottingham, said: "Mental health services are woefully deficient. I've read reports GPs prescribe too many antidepressants and reports we don't prescribe enough. "When faced with a patient in crisis do I wait three months for their first appointment for a talking therapy or do I prescribe an antidepressant? "Their distress, self-harm risk, employment risk and relationship risk encourages me to prescribe."

GP's criticised for handing out antidepressants say that talking therapies take too long to access

NHS England said of the 50,713 referrals that finished a course of treatment in November 89 per cent waited less than six weeks and 99 per cent waited less than 18 weeks to enter therapy. A little over half moved to recovery. But children and adolescent mental health services have long delays, with 32 per cent of youngsters waiting a year to start treatment, according to government figures. The Government has announced a range of measures and funding to improve services, including directing hundreds of mental health workers into schools this year and providing extra training for 8,000 education staff by 2023. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "The decision to prescribe antidepressants will never be taken lightly. We know treatment of depression is usually best done with a combination of approaches, including psychological therapies such as CBT.