In County Durham, doctors are giving out an average of 1,436 prescriptions for anti-depressant drugs every day, costing more than £3.5million a year – bringing the total spent across the areas to more than £5million.

Today, Sunderland health bosses said depression is treated in a number of ways, including counselling and interpersonal therapies, and anti-depressants are not prescribed in every case.

Doctors are advised to follow national guidance from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence.

Janette Stephenson, head of commissioning medicines management at NHS South of Tyne and Wear, which covers Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, said: "It is also important to state that although anti-depressants are predominantly prescribed for depression, they are also licensed for the treatment of a range of other conditions such as anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, treatment of phobias and in the management of neuropathic pain."

Figures obtained from the NHS Business Services Authority's Prescription Pricing Division show that 237,580 prescriptions for anti-depressants were handed out in Sunderland in 2007/08 – up about eight per cent from 2006/07 when 218,974 anti-depressant drug prescriptions were given out.

The cost of prescribing the drugs on Wearside has dropped from £2,001,639.12 in 2006/07 to £1,877,931.69 in 2007/08.

Health bosses say the rise in anti-depressant prescriptions is comparable with other PCTs locally and nationally, and can be put down to better diagnosis, improved treatment in primary care, and social factors such as an ageing population.

The cost has dropped because the drugs are no longer under patent, meaning they can be produced by a range of manufacturers leading to lower costs.

The figures, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also show the number of anti-depressant drugs prescribed in County Durham has risen by about nine per cent – from 447,267 in 2006/07 to 491,468 in 2007/08.

The cost of prescribing the drugs has gone down in the county – from £3,858,292.79 in 2006/07 to £3,515,626.10 over the past year.

The most common anti-depressant drug prescribed in Sunderland in 2007/08 was Citalopram Hydrobromide, with 53,282 at a cost of £139,727.70.

In County Durham, the most common drug prescribed in the past year was Amitriptyline Hydrochloride, with 125,378 prescriptions, costing £287,496.54.

A spokesman for County Durham Primary Care Trust said the number of prescriptions issued may have increased due to a number of reasons, including a waste campaign which involved changing patients from 56-day prescriptions to 28-day prescriptions and an increasing trend of moving prescribing from hospital services into GP-based care.

He added: "Prescribing costs over the period the data covers varied widely due to changes in the reimbursement prices of drugs. However, over the past nine months these prices have remained relatively stable.

"As a result it would be unwise to draw too many conclusions of prescribing activity based on the cost of these drugs year on year."