State ‘wastes €34m a year on unneeded anti-depressants’

The State is paying out €34m a year to fund anti-depressants prescribed to people who do not need them, according to a leading psychologist who instead called for greater access to counselling.

Speaking at the Irish Association of Suicidology annual conference, Declan Aherne, a clinical psychologist and head of counselling at the University of Limerick (UL), called for an end to this “wasteful” practice and said the money would be more effective if it was instead used to implement counselling services in communities across the country.

“People are crying out for more talk therapy and the evidence is that it works,” said Dr Aherne.

“If you go to a GP, generally what they do is they say here are some anti-depressants and we’ll get you to see a counsellor. In that one act they’re costing us €34m a year. So what I’m saying is why not get rid of the need for the doctor’s appointment altogether and simply give people access to the counsellors first.”

As part of his ongoing research into suicide, depression, and mental health services, Dr Aherne obtained figures from the HSE outlining how much was spent on anti-depressants each year.

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He then worked out how many severely depressed people there would be in the country, how many anti-depressants would be allocated to them, and realised an extra €34m was being spent on medicating those who should not be medicated at all.

“This money is being spent on anti-depressants for people despite the fact there’s no viable evidence which suggests they ought to be even on anti-depressants,” said Dr Aherne.

He added that GPs have “no training whatsoever” in connecting with people, which is what is needed if they are to help those with depression and those who may be contemplating suicide.

“They don’t have any training in connecting,” he said. “That’s not what they’re trained to do, it’s what counsellors are trained to do. It’s only by chance you meet a nice GP that makes a connection but that’s them, not their training. You could go to a nice postman and he might make a connection with you too, but it’s not his training either.

“The Government talks about giving physicians and GPs more training but that’s not where we need to be putting the money. The money needs to be going into primary-care psychological services.”