Adults diagnosed with depression (FOI)

A
Please kindly provide the number of adults diagnosed with depression during the months of March to August 2020, broken down by month. Please provide the total number of the same, broken down by month, for 2019.

B
Please kindly provide the number of adults diagnosed with anxiety during the months of March to August 2020, broken down by month. Please provide the total number of the same, broken down by month, for 2019.

C
Please kindly provide the number of prescriptions for medication for depression during the months of March to August 2020, broken down by month. Please provide the total number of the same, broken down by month, for 2019.

D
Please kindly provide the number of prescriptions for medication for anxiety during the months of March to August 2020, broken down by month. Please provide the total number of the same, broken down by month, for 2019.

A&B 
It is not possible to provide an accurate figure as anxiety and depression can often be diagnosed in connection with other symptoms and may not be separately recorded.

C&D 

Health and Community Services response:

It is not possible to provide an accurate figure as the medicines used to treat depression and anxiety can also be used for other conditions. There is no way of linking a prescription to diagnosis and therefore no way of identifying numbers of patients with these conditions.

In addition, it is not possible to determine how many prescriptions have been dispensed for these medicines as the Health & Community Services IT system works on the quantities of medicines supplied not numbers of prescriptions. 

The table below shows the number of medicines dispensed in the community at cost to the Health Insurance Fund. A small number of prescriptions for these medicines may also be dispensed for patients from the hospital.  

However, information is not collected on the reason why a medicine is prescribed and dispensed.  Medicines used in the treatment of depression or anxiety may be used for other reasons, for example, treatment of chronic pain or management of substance misuse.