As per reported information, it has been claimed that in excess of 29 million prescriptions were given in 2010 for various medications allied to mental health concerns.

In this regard, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) recently released a report, claiming that anti-depressant drugs made up for almost 60% of prescription scripts. After anti-depressant drugs, anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety drugs were most prescribed by doctors.

The report further stated that each prescription was generally meant for month-long treatment, which implies that in excess of 2.4 million people in Australia are relying on prescribed drugs to monitor their health-related issues, though many patients were found using more than one type of medication.

The data, which was made available yesterday on the interactive mental health portal of the institute, also revealed that in excess of $5.8 billion was washed out, by private health insurance funds and governments, in the region to focus on mental health care services during 2008-09.

While briefing the report, Psychiatrist Michael Baigent, Spokesperson for Beyondblue and Professor at Flinders University, stressed that the verity numerous patients all over Australia have sought therapies for monitoring depression was a novel and better thing to heed, though he expected that they were also relying on effective psychological treatments along with medications being prescribed to them by their GPs and physicians.

Ian Hickie, of the Brain and Mind Institute, claimed that the novel AIHW statistics clearly implied an increase of 25.7% in various psychological services and care facilities instigated during last five years or so.