antidepressants-healthinequalities

Following on from the commissioned Public Health England (PHE) Review on dependency forming medicines, NHSE&I is leading on implementation of the recommendations as published in the report with the following aims: i) the optimisation of medicines that can cause dependence and withdrawal and ensure they are prescribed and reviewed in line with evidence-based guidance; ii) patients taking medicines that can cause dependence and withdrawal in the most clinically effective and safest way possible; iii) the availability of appropriate services to deliver the best patient outcomes for populations; and iv) focused on increasing the availability and use of data including routine publishing and development of metrics highlighting variation and uptake of alternative interventions and support services; risk stratification and identifying need; consistent and coordinated publication with easy access for all users and purposes; access to data, transparency of methodology and code for third party use.

To ensure implementation decisions are made on an equitable basis to improve health outcomes and the experiences of all patients, communities and the workforce, other key information is essential to highlight, prioritise and address health inequalities as well as assess the impact of COVID-19 on the prescribing of these medicines.

We will investigate the impact of COVID-19 on dependency forming medication use by age, gender, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), ethnicity, region.

Insight will help inform more immediate programme implementation measures, support pandemic research and co-ordinate the ongoing national response in alignment with the overall programme.