Mental health policy and practice across Europe: an overview

Psychopharmaceuticals in Europe 153
The European Union
If we examine the figures for the European Union (EU-15) in more detail over
the decade of the 1990s (see Table 7.3), while the overall number of SUs prescribed
rose by about 19 per cent, prescribing of tranquillizers, sedatives and
hypnotics remained relatively stable, showing a slight growth over the period of
around 5 per cent. Prescribing of antipsychotics has risen by 17 per cent, mostly
as a result of the growth in the market for the newer ‘atypicals’, and psychostimulants
rose by almost 90 per cent from a low base. However, the major
growth area was in antidepressant drugs: prescribing of antidepressants rose by
almost 50 per cent across this decade.
The figures and trends are clearest if expressed as SUs per 1000 population (see
Table 7.4). Once again, prescribing of tranquillizers, sedatives, hypnotics and
antipsychotics remained relatively stable over the decade. The most marked
rises were shown in psychostimulants – where prescribing increased tenfold
– and antidepressants – where prescribing almost doubled over the period,
an increase almost entirely due to the 14-fold increase in prescriptions for
SSRI-type pharmaceuticals (see Table 7.5).
Table 7.3 Psychiatric drug prescribing 1990–2000 in Europe (standard dosage units,
thousands)
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000
Tranquillizers 7,513,609 7,571,866 7,438,466 7,836,741 7,889,968 8,127,616
Antidepressants 3,399,914 3,855,187 4,261,443 5,237,285 5,909,638 6,451,185
Sedatives and 5,277,560 5,472,512 5,476,647 5,782,375 5,849,562 5,626,615
hypnotics
Antipsychotics – all 2,486,725 2,737,709 2,728,829 2,890,676 2,921,099 3,015,128
Psychostimulants 12,069 14,785 18,412 36,656 62,605 113,005
Total 18,689,877 19,652,059 19,923,797 21,783,733 22,632,872 23,333,549
Source: IMS Health Second Study. See Note 1.
Table 7.4 Psychiatric drug prescribing 1990–2000 in Europe (standard dosage units
per 1000 population)
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000
Tranquillizers 20,599 20,758 20,393 21,484 21,630 22,282
Antidepressants 9,321 10,569 11,683 14,358 16,201 17,686
Sedatives and hypnotics 14,468 15,003 15,014 15,852 16,037 15,425
Antipsychotics – all 6,817 7,505 7,481 7,925 8,008 8,266
Psychostimulants 33 41 50 100 172 310
Total 51,238 53,876 54,621 59,720 62,048 63,969
Source: IMS Health Second Study. See Note 1.