The number of British Army personnel prescribed anti-depressants between 01 January 2015 and 08 January 2017 was:

• Male soldiers: 5,020.
• Female soldiers: 1,148.
• Total: 6,168.

Notes:

1. This information is derived from the Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP) which is a centralised data warehouse of coded information.
2. The DMICP is a the source of electronic, integrated healthcare records for primary healthcare and some MOD specialist care providers from which searches for codes can be run.
3. Some medications used to treat depression are used to treat conditions other than mental health.
4. Amitriptyline, nortriptyline, and duloxetine are used much more frequently in the management of neuropathic pain than in depression.
5. Furthermore, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) such as fluoxetine, paroxetine, citalopram, escitalopram, sertraline can be used to treat other medical conditions.
6. It is not possible to determine the reason for prescription from centrally held data, therefore the numbers provided will contain prescriptions for medical conditions other than depression.

Reference

FOI 2017/13417 dated 14 February 2018.