Rise in Anti-depressant Use ‘Positive,’ New Zealand Ministry of Health Says

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From Stuff: “A rise in the use of anti-depressants over the past decade is a ‘positive’ sign more people are getting support, Ministry of Health officials say.

Provisional data released by the ministry shows a year-on-year increase in the number of anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medication dispensed between 2010 and 2020.

The number of anti-psychotic units (measured in tablets, capsules or millilitres of oral liquid) dispensed jumped by 47 per cent, from 44.3 million to 65.3m. Taking New Zealand’s population increase into account, that still represents a 26 per cent rise.

The number of anti-depressant units dispensed rose 40 per cent, from 139.5m to 195.7m, representing a 20 per cent rise when accounting for population growth.

Anxiolytics, used to treat and prevent anxiety, increased by 18 per cent, from 21.7m to 25.7m. This ended up as a 1 per cent increase when taking population growth into account.

. . . ‘At the minute there isn’t a lot of access to psychological therapies so perhaps, I suspect people are having to get medications because they are having to wait for a psychologist’ [said New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists spokesman Paul Skirrow].

. . . Psychiatrist Dr Richard Porter . . . said psychological therapy was not available as a publicly funded service in New Zealand.

‘Appropriate psychotherapy…is simply not available, except in the private sector and obviously most people are going to struggle to pay.’

. . . University of Auckland academic psychiatrist Associate Professor David Menke said the increase in the use of anti-psychotic drugs was likely driven by the high use of one drug – quetiapine – to treat ‘all sorts’ of problems including anxiety and insomnia.”

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5 COMMENTS

  1. I do not have the technical expertise to put this data into program that can extrapolate the results of the drugging in a few years.
    More drugs only lead to more drugs, but that IS what drug dealers sell.

    The people not making money from not selling drugs need to show the governments (that is paying for a lot of the drugs) the stats on the increasing rates of mental illness and that the drugs are not working as claimed. But who has the money to lobby the government?

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      • One would think that the ‘Ministry of Health officials’ would know by now, that both the antidepressants and antipsychotics can create ‘psychosis,’ via anticholinergic toxidrome.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxidrome

        Thus the dramatic increase in these drug classes use, will only increase the number of ‘psychotic’ people. Which is a negative for those who ‘are getting support,’ since most people don’t want to be made ‘psychotic.’ Making someone ‘psychotic’ with drugs is pretty much the opposite of “getting support.”

        “Q. WHAT ARE THE POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF THIS FINDING?

        A. ….Implication:” We need to decrease the use of drug classes that can make people ‘psychotic.’

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  3. Yes, it’s a “positive mess” and a “positive” way to increase the need for hospitals and morturaries. Yes, it’s “positive.” I believe Someone Else mentioned drugs lead to more drugs. Yes! That was the idea that they tried to put in our brains in the sixties, seventies, eighties, etc. Marijuana was considered the “gateway drug.” Marijuana may still be a “gateway drug” but so are anti-depressants and almost any other psych drug; because like candy, one drug always leads to another and another, etc. But, they know that, don’t they. And, by the way, I used to dream of goin to New Zealand, but, now longer, it is just as corrupt and big pharma financed as almost all so-called “developed” countries. Thank you.

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