Thousands of Peterborough people could have been prescribed anti-depressant drugs needlessly.

Taken from the Evening Telegraph

New figures have revealed rocketing numbers of people in Peterborough are being prescribed anti-depressant drugs – with one person in 20 now on medication.Figures obtained by The Evening Telegraph show that last year doctors wrote out almost 89,000 prescriptions for drugs such as Prozac.

That is a 12 per cent rise on just two years ago when city GPs authorised just over 78,000 prescriptions for the drugs.

The new figure means around one in 20 of all adults in Peterborough are clinically depressed.

Today, Karren Ferris, from Tallington, who had been on anti-depressants for six years, said the medication had ruined her life.

The mum-of-two started taking the drugs after stopping work to have children and said it plunged her into a downward spiral.

She added: "I made some silly decisions. I thought I was all right on it and instead I was just burying my problems.''

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The findings in Peterborough come despite growing concerns about Britain's excessive reliance on chemical treatments and their possible side-effects.

Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2004 recommended that they should not be used as a first-stop remedy for depression.

Vice-chairwoman of Peterborough City Council's health and adult social care scrutiny panel Cllr Janet Goodwin said they would discuss the issue at their next meeting.

She added: "The well being of people in Peterborough is the main thing. We have to rely on doctors to prescribe what they consider is best for the patient and each one is an individual case."

Ray White, whose 28-year-old son Jason died two years ago after an eight-year battle with schizophrenia, believed patients in Peterborough needed better access to more "holistic" treatments. Mr White, whose family has raised £30,000 for mental health charity Mind, said: "I'm sure if there were more initiatives for alternative treatment, doctors would feel more confident pushing patients towards them. "There is no doubt that more holistic treatment, through exercise and counselling, can play a big part in treating depression."