5m drug prescriptions for mental health a year

MORE than five million prescriptions for powerful drugs to treat depression, psychosis, anxiety or lack of sleep are being written every year, costing in excess of €110 million, official figures have revealed.

The true extent of so-called “pill-popping” in Ireland, however, is much more as the only figures recorded are for medical card holders and people claiming through drug payment schemes, which accounts for less than half the population.

Figures compiled by the Irish Examiner from the HSE’s 2009 Primary Care Reimbursement Service show 14,000 prescriptions for anti-depressants, benzodiazepines (addictive tranquillising pills), anti- psychotics and sleeping tablets were being written every day, at a cost of €113m. The drugs are now being prescribed as often as common antacid tablets.