prescribed antidepressants has doubled. On the other hand, antidepressant prescriptions for children aged 5–11 in England decreased between 1999 and 2017. From April 2015, prescriptions increased for both age groups (for people aged 0 to 17) and peaked during the first COVID lockdown in March 2020. According to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, antidepressants for children and adolescents with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) should be prescribed together with therapy and after being assessed by a child and adolescent psychiatrist. However, between 2006 and 2017, only 1 in 4 of 12–17 year-olds who were prescribed an SSRI by their GP had seen a specialist psychiatrist and 1 in 6 has seen a pediatrician. Half of these prescriptions were for depression and 16% for anxiety, the latter not being licensed for treatment with antidepressants. Among the suggested possible reasons why GPs are not following the guidelines are the difficulties of accessing talking therapies, long waiting lists, and the urgency of treatment. According to some researchers, strict adherence to treatment guidelines would limit access to effective medication for young people with mental health problems. United States In the United States, antidepressants were the most commonly prescribed medication in 2013. Of the estimated 16 million "long term" (over 24 months) users, roughly 70 percent are female. , about 16.5% of white people in the United States took antidepressants compared with 5.6% of black people in the United States. United States: The most commonly prescribed antidepressants in the US retail market in 2010 were: Netherlands: In the Netherlands, paroxetine is the most prescribed antidepressant, followed by amitriptyline, citalopram and venlafaxine. Adherence , worldwide, 30% to 60% of people didn't follow their practitioner's instructions about taking their antidepressants, and in the US, it appeared that around 50% of people did not take their antidepressants as directed by their practitioner. When people fail to take their antidepressants, there is a greater risk that the drug won't help, that symptoms get worse, that they miss work or are less productive at work, and that the person may be hospitalized. Social science perspective Some academics have highlighted the need to examine the use of antidepressants and other medical treatments in cross-cultural terms, because various cultures prescribe and observe different manifestations, symptoms, meanings, and associations of depression and other medical conditions within their populations. These cross-cultural discrepancies, it has been argued, then have implications on