Are we overprescribing antidepressants?

There is increasing concern about Australia’s high rate of antidepressant use, with one in seven Australians being prescribed antidepressants.

Despite most antidepressants being prescribed by general practitioners with clinical guidelines recommending only 6 to 12 months use for moderate to severe depression, the average therapy in Australia is much longer. Ongoing use can also lead to unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, making it increasingly harder to stop. Could this potential overuse of antidepressants be leading to more harm than good? 

Join our experts as they share their insights around antidepressant prescribing, explore ways that long term use can be tapered and discuss how we can support change in general practice prescribing practises.  

Our expert panel

Professor Katharine Wallis

Head, General Practice Clinical Unit, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland

Professor Katharine Wallis MBChB, PhD, MBHL, Dip Obst, FRNZCGP, FACRRM is a practising GP and Head of both the Mayne Academy of General Practice and General Practice Clinical Unit at the University of Queensland. Professor Wallis’s research focuses on safer prescribing in general practice.

She leads the MRFF and NHMRC funded RELEASE (REdressing Long-tErm Antidepressant uSE) trial.

Dr Mark Horowitz

Clinical Research Fellow in Pyschiatry, North East London NHS Foundation Trust

Honorary Clinical Research Felloww, University College London

Dr Mark Horowitz MBBS, PhD is Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), Visiting Lecturer at King’s College London, an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at University College London and a trainee psychiatrist. He has a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London in the neurobiology of depression and antidepressant action. He is the lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines and is an associate editor of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology.