Committee on Future of Mental Health Care to discuss over-prescription of anti-depressants

Committee Chairperson, Joan Freeman, said today, “The focus of our meeting tomorrow is Ireland’s reliance on prescription medication when tackling certain mental health issues. We will discuss the benefits of talking therapy as opposed to the mood altering method. There is a widely-held view that anti-depressants are over-prescribed because they are cheaper and there are long waits for other forms of assistance, such as therapy. The Committee will wish to hear about the problems GPs face when dealing with patients who come to them with mental health issues. Often GPs will refer these patients to a mental health service, but the patients will often be left languishing on a waiting list for months. In these situations, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications can sometimes be prescribed in lieu of talking therapies.  There is a growing body of evidence that talk therapies can be as or more beneficial than drugs for some patients but certainly the combination of both can be useful.  Tomorrow the Committee will discuss the problem of over-prescription and the need for robust mental health care programmes.”

The meeting will start at 1.30pm in Committee Room 4, Leinster House.

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