Australians continue to be among the highest users of psychiatric medications in the world. As detailed in the table above from July 2024 to June 2025, nearly one in five Australians — 5,161,203 people, or 18.8% of the population — were dispensed at least one mental health-related medication through the PBS/RPBS system.​ Antidepressants were by far the most commonly dispensed mental health-related medications, with 3,820,402 patients, or 13.9% of the Australian population, receiving at least one antidepressant in 2024–25. The next most common were anxiolytics — 896,242 patients, 3.3%; psychostimulants/ADHD medications — 760,622 patients, 2.8%; hypnotics and sedatives — 544,745 patients, 2.0%; and antipsychotics — 503,665 patients, 1.8%.

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Polypharmacy - Many Australians were dispensed more than one broad type of psychiatric medication. Although the exact number cannot be determined from the data published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, comparing the total number of patients dispensed any mental health-related medication with the sum of the individual medication-type counts shows 1,364,473 excess medication-type counts. This implies that somewhere between 341,119 and 1,364,473 Australians were dispensed medications from more than one broad psychiatric drug category.[1]

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GPs dominate prescribing - Despite the fact that general practitioners have limited specialist psychiatric and neurological training, AIHW reports that 81% of mental health-related prescriptions dispensed in 2024–25 were issued by general practitioners. The main exception was psychostimulants/ADHD medications, where AIHW reports that 37% of prescriptions were written by non-psychiatrist specialists, such as paediatricians, 36% by psychiatrists, and 26% by GPs.[2]

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Older Australians remain the heaviest users. In 2024–25, 40.8% of Australians aged 85 years and over were dispensed at least one mental health-related medication. Rates rose progressively through most older age groups: 0–4 years, 0.3%; 5–11 years, 8.6%; 12–17 years, 12.8%; 18–24 years, 14.5%; 25–34 years, 16.1%; 35–44 years, 19.1%; 45–54 years, 23.2%; 55–64 years, 24.2%; 65–74 years, 26.1%; 75–84 years, 32.5%; and 85 years and over, 40.8%. AIHW states that people aged 75–84 and 85 years and over have consistently had the highest rates since 2015–16.

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Gender - A higher proportion of females than males received medication. In 2024–25, 22.4% of females were dispensed at least one mental health-related medication, compared with 15.2% of males. AIHW reports that females have consistently had rates 40–50% higher than males since 2015–16.

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Australian States - Among the Australian states and territories, Tasmania had the highest rate of mental health-related medication use in 2024–25, with 25.1% of Tasmanians dispensed at least one mental health-related medication. The Northern Territory had the lowest recorded rate, 10.6%, although AIHW warns that Northern Territory data are underestimated because some medicines supplied through remote First Nations health services are not captured in PBS prescription data. The other 2024–25 state and territory rates were: Queensland 20.7%, South Australia 19.9%, Western Australia 18.9%, Victoria 18.5%, the ACT 18.5%, and New South Wales 17.5%.[3]

 

These high rates of psychiatric drug use invite obvious questions: Are Australians benefiting from all this medication use? Or are Australians suffering from a harmful epidemic of psychiatric over-diagnosis and over-prescribing?

 

[1] The actual figure depends on how many people received two, three, four or five different medication types.

[2] AIHW, Mental health-related prescriptions, “Who prescribes mental health-related prescriptions?” and Figure/Table PBS.3.

[3] AIHW, Mental health-related prescriptions, “Patient demographics,” Figure PBS.1 and Table PBS.4.