NHS would offer therapy for depression before medication under new guidelines

The NHS could start offering therapy before prescribing medication for patients suffering from depression, new reports have detailed today.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said that a ‘menu of treatment options’ such as therapy, group exercise, mindfulness or meditation could be offered to patients with ‘mild depression’ before they’re prescribed antidepressants. 

As it stands, people with mild depression are given antidepressants or a form of high-intensity psychological intervention such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

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According to NICE, the group exercise would consist of three sixty-minute sessions a week for ten weeks, while patients opting for group mindfulness or meditation would partake in eight weekly two-hour sessions and focus on ‘concentrating on the present, observing and sitting with thoughts and feelings and bodily sensations, and breathing exercises’.

The draft guideline, which is still subject to consultation, reads: “Do not routinely offer antidepressant medication as first-line treatment for less severe depression, unless that is the person’s preference.”

The guideline also encourages doctors to engage in conversations with their patients to discover what kind of treatment would be suited to them best. 

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Dr Paul Chrisp, director of the centre for guidelines at NICE, said: “People with depression deserve and expect the best treatment from the NHS which is why this guideline is urgently required.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us the impact depression has had on the nation’s mental health.

People with depression need these evidence-based guideline recommendations available to the NHS, without delay.”

ONS data has found that one in five British adults experienced some form of depression during the first lockdown in January 2020.