More than 70,000 children are being prescribed anti-depressants despite concerns that the pills may damage their developing brains

Ten of thousands of children are being prescribed potentially brain-harming antidepressants, it was reported last night.

More than 70,000 people under the age of 18 and nearly 2,000 children of primary school ages in England were treated medically for depression last year, according to NHS data obtained by the Times. However, experts believe that antidepressants provide little benefit to children and that doctors are ‘medicalising adolescence’.

Up to three per cent of children are thought to be depressed.

However, talking therapies are often recommended as the first choice of treatment, according to scientists.

The freedom of information request also discovered that one in six adults used the pills in the same year – a rise of nearly half a million since 2015.

The data reportedly shows that 7.3million people in England were prescribed at least one antidepressant last year.

Out of those, a fifth of people were taking the pills in towns such as Great Yarmouth and Blackpool – but the figure was less than one in ten in London.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5976587/Doctors-prescribe-pills-depression-70-000-children.html

Is low serotonin/dopamine an epidemic now? An interesting thought.

Getting more and more like America. Thousands on them there and many see psychologist to. Why?