Around 80 thousand packages of psychotropic drugs were dispensed per day in 2025 in mainland Portugal, totaling almost 29.4 million, the highest value in the last decade, with SNS charges of around 152 million euros.
In 10 years, sales of antidepressants and antipsychotics grew 82% and 72%respectively, while benzodiazepines (anxiolytics, sedatives and hypnotics) registered a drop of 6.9%, reveal the data provided to the Lusa agency by the National Authority for Medicines and Health Products (Infarmed).
Mental health experts point to the explanations for this increase: greater diagnosis and wider access to treatment, the progressive replacement of benzodiazepines by antidepressants and antipsychoticsas well as factors such as the increase in residents and tourists and difficulties in accessing psychotherapy.
The data concerns prescribed and subsidized medicines, dispensed in community pharmacies between January 2015 and December 2025, a period in which psychotropic drug packages increased from 21.6 million to around 29.4 million (+36%).
This increase had impact on charges for the National Health Service, which rose from 123.1 million euros to 156.6 million (+24%).
Antidepressants were the class with the highest growth, going from around 7.6 million packages to close to 13.8 million (+82%). Associated expenses increased from R$33.7 million to R$63.6 million (+89%).
The consumption of antipsychotics, used mainly in the treatment of disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, has also increased from around 3.2 million packages, to 5.5 million (+72%), but public expenditure fell from 68.8 million euros to 65.7 million (-4.5%).
Benzodiazepines registered a decline, from around 10.8 million packages to 10.1 million (-6.9%).
Despite the reduction in consumption, charges increased from R$20.6 million to R$23.4 million (+13.5%).
Commenting on the data, psychiatrist Ana Matos Pires, from the National Coordination of Mental Health Policies, stated that the increase in the prescription of psychotropic drugs “it is always an indicator” that there may be “more people in suffering”, but also that serious mental illness is being “diagnosed and treated more quickly.
“Of course, it is never good for there to be serious mental illness, but it is much worse for it to exist and not be treated,” he highlighted, noting that antidepressants are not restricted to depression, and are also used in disorders such as severe anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and chronic pain.
Ana Matos Pires also highlighted as “good news” the drop in the prescription of benzodiazepines due to the risk of dependence.
“These data reassure me because what was, and is, a public health concern, the large prescription of benzodiazepines, is falling,” he stated.
In his view, the data also reflects greater awareness of serious mental illnesses and an earlier search for help, associated with the reform of services and the expansion of community mental health teams, which “catch people more quickly”.
The elected president of the Portuguese Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Albino Oliveira-Maia, defended, in turn, that the data should be analyzed, taking into account factors such as demographic changes and inflation.
The psychiatrist and director of the Neuropsychiatry Unit at the Champalimaud Foundation stated that, with the increase in residents and tourists, a greater need for care is to be expected, reflected in the sale of medicines, including psychotropic drugs.
He also considered that part of the increase may result from therapeutic substitutions, mainly due to the reduction in the use of benzodiazepines.
“There is a growing tendency to avoid these medications,” he said, explaining that some antidepressants and antipsychotics can be used in low doses to treat insomnia.
For Albino Oliveira-Maia, this increase may also reflect an improvement in access to healthcare, but, he warned, “although it is improving, it is not, neither near nor far, at the desired levels.”
“Access, for example, to other means of treatment, such as psychotherapy, is still relatively difficult, both inside and outside the National Health Service”, he lamented.
The president of the Specialty Council for Clinical and Health Psychology of the Order of Portuguese Psychologists, Miguel Ricou, defended greater investment in psychotherapy.
“The increase [do consumo] clearly shows the difficulty in accessing alternative interventions in mental health”, but also the difficulty in accessing psychologists and psychiatrists, which often leads family doctors to resort to prescribing psychotropic drugs as a first response.
“Without quick access, a cycle of medication and relapse is created that is difficult to break,” he warned.
