Opportunity cost of antidepressant prescribing in England: analysis of routine data.

Recently, prescribing of antidepressant drugs has increased exceptionally. At the same time, concerns have been raised about the medicalisation of human distress and, more recently, about the safety of antidepressants. Many general practitioners would like to refer patients for psychological treatment, for which there is good evidence of effectiveness, but are constrained by the lack of NHS therapists. We estimated the opportunity cost of the recent rise in antidepressant prescribing by valuing it in terms of an effective alternative treatment—cognitive behaviour therapy.