LONDON, England - June 11, 2010 - The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS has almost doubled in the last decade, and rose sharply last year as the Depression bit, figures reveal.

The health service issued 39.1 million prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression in England in 2009, compared with 20.1 million in 1999 - a 95% jump. Doctors handed out 3.18 million more prescriptions last year than in 2008, almost twice the annual rise seen in preceding years, according to previously unpublished statistics released by the NHS's Business Services Authority.

The increase is thought to be due in part to improved diagnosis, reduced stigma around mental ill health and rising worries about jobs and finances triggered by the economic downturn.

But tonight doctors warned that some people are being put on the drugs unnecessarily, especially those with milder symptoms of depression, partly because there is too little access to "talking therapies", which use discussion rather than drugs to tackle problems.

"I'm concerned that too many people are being prescribed antidepressants and not being given counselling and cognitive behaviour therapy, because access to those therapies, while it is improving, is still patchy," said Professor Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which represents the UK's family doctors.