Twenty-two million antidepressant items were prescribed to 6.6 million patients over a three-month period last year, according to figures from the NHS Business Services Authority.

According to its quarterly report covering October to December last year, there was a six per cent increase in the prescribing of central nervous system stimulants and drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Over 645,000 items were prescribed in total during that period.

The NHSBSA said antipsychotics and drugs for dementia “showed small increases in prescribing” while hypnotics and anxiolytics were the only group of drugs that produced a decrease in prescribing, although the number of patients on those drugs remained above one million.