CLAIMS that exam-stressed teenagers are being handed prescriptions for antidepressants have been challenged by children’s health experts.
Figures from the Government’s drugs watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), show that the number of prescriptions for antidepressants given to 16 to 18-year-olds in full-time education has trebled since 1995, from 46,000 to 140,000, while prescriptions to under-16s rose from 76,000 in 1996 to 110,000.
But the MHRA figures do not indicate any link between the rise in prescriptions and students’ exam worries, as had been reported in The Observer, The Times Educational Supplement (June 11) writes.
David Cottrell, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Leeds, said: “In my experience, I have never seen a child who has been put on antidepressants by their GP for exam stress.”
“Drugs such as Prozac and Seroxat are treatments for depression, not exam stress.”
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A separate story in London’s Evening Standard claimed that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) would be issuing guidelines to doctors on the best way to treat teenagers suffering from severe exam stress.
NICE has since made it clear that the guidelines were concerned with the general treatment of children’s mental health and that there would be no specific advice on depression caused by exam pressure.
Other child healthcare experts, however, believe there is “horrendous” pressure on teenagers to do well in exams.
While not commenting on the MHRA figures, Cary Cooper, professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University, said that league tables have contributed to pupils’ stress: “Twenty years ago, parents were not as clued-in to the importance of exams.”