Depressive Illnesses
Health

Bob Spink (Castle Point, Independent)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the NHS is taking to improve clinical outcomes from treatment provided to patients diagnosed with (a) major depression, (b) atypical depression, (c) psychotic depression, (d) dysthymia and (e) manic depression.

Phil Hope (Minister of State (the East Midlands), Regional Affairs; Corby, Labour)

Since 2001-02, total planned investment in adult mental health services has increased by 50 per cent. (£2.0 billion), putting in place the extra services and staff needed to transform mental health services. Nine consecutive years of increased spending by the national health service on mental health services has provided more staff, and increasing numbers of people with a severe mental illness are receiving treatment from community teams outside of hospital settings.

Our significant investment in the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme (IAPT), will see annual funding rising to £173 million, 3,600 extra therapists trained and 900,000 more people treated by 2011. This investment in IAPT will help to add to the existing provision of psychological therapies, increase capacity, reduce waiting times and drive up quality standards.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) expects to issue revised guidance on treating depression later this year. NICE issued guidance on treating bipolar disorder in 2006, which indicates evidence-based approaches to treatment and covers psychological as well as drug treatments for these conditions. General practitioners and consultant psychiatrists are expected to take NICE guidance fully into account when deciding on the most appropriate treatment for their patients.