The demand for antidepressants has grown by 24% in the last year

The pent-up demand for antidepressants in Spanish community pharmacies has experienced a 24% growth in the last yearaccording to data from the Cofares Trend Observatory, which also shows a “constant and linear” increase in this demand from the beginning of 2024.

This situation is related to the fact that Depressive disorders are the most common mental health problems recorded in the clinical history of the population, with 47.8 cases per 1,000 inhabitantsafter anxiety (106.5 cases per 1,000 inhabitants) and sleeping diseases (81.6 cases per 1,000 inhabitants).

Madrid is the autonomous community with the highest demand of antidepressants (32%), followed by Catalonia (18%) and the Valencian Community (14%), according to the analysis carried out by Cofares on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, which was commemorated last Friday, October 10. Furthermore, as highlighted in the latest Annual Report of the National Health System, Women consume between 1.5 and 3 times more of these drugs than men, in all age groups.

Anxiolytics: more than half of the demand

Although the demand for antidepressants has grown, anxiolytics continue to be the “big protagonists” in the mental health market, as they constitute the 53% of the total. Despite this, its demand in community pharmacies has stabilized after the “strong rebounds” experienced during the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the accumulated volume of units has registered a 2% decrease compared to 2024 levels.

Other psychotropic drugs have also experienced minor oscillations with respect to 2024, such as antipsychoticswhose demand has increased by 2.6%, or the hypnotics and sedativeswhich have experienced a decrease of 0.8 percent.

The Observatory’s analysis has also revealed a “very marked” seasonal pattern in the demand for this type of products, concentrating especially on the months after vacation breaks. In 2022 and 2023, these peaks were recorded especially in January and February, while In 2024 and 2025 this behavior has shifted “slightly” towards February and Marchwith annual increases also in September and October.