UEL academic calls for antidepressant reduction
Published
14 December 2023
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Leading University of East London academic and clinical psychologist Professor John Read has joined with medical experts, patients and politicians to urge a reduction in the prescription of antidepressants across the UK. Professor Read, of UEL’s School of Psychology, was the co-author of an open letter to the British Medical Journal (BMJ) which addressed what the group argues is an over-reliance on prescription medication within the healthcare system.
The letter says,
“Rising antidepressant prescribing is not associated with an improvement in mental health outcomes at the population level, which, according to some measures, have worsened as antidepressant prescribing has risen.”
Professor Read, who is also chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, has been a keen advocate for curbing the medicalising of certain mental health conditions and his research has helped shape and inform the debate.
He said, “The widespread prescription of antidepressants almost by default exemplifies the phenomenon of over-medicalisation. Patients are frequently given unnecessary and potentially harmful medications instead of addressing the underlying sources of their distress.
“The research I am conducting with colleagues highlights the need for a substantial re-appraisal of the culture of antidepressant prescription and I’m pleased that the issue is now a matter of debate and focus.” The letter to the BMJ received widespread media coverage including reports in The Guardian, Daily Mail and Politico, and it was subsequently picked up by news outlets around the world.
The letter was timed to coincide with the launch at the House of Lords of a new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) called Beyond Pills, which represents a merger of the previous APPG for Prescribed Drug Dependence with the College of Medicine’s Beyond Pills campaign.
Professor Read was a guest at the launch and spoke in favour of the group’s first goal - the establishment of a 24-hour crisis line for people coming off antidepressants.
The new APPG’s mission is “to move UK healthcare beyond an over-reliance on pills by combining social prescribing, lifestyle medicine, psychosocial interventions and safe deprescribing. As well as reducing unnecessary and inappropriate prescribing, this integrated approach will improve outcomes and reduce health inequalities”.
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