46.7m prescriptions were dispensed last year for anti-depressants and sleeping pills, the NHS reports.
Professor Clare Gerada, of the Royal College of General Practitioners, says anti-depressants work and save lives.
Speaking to the Today programme, she said she believes there is a lack of understanding that depression is a "real illness that needs real medicine to make it better".
She says talking therapy is needed alongside anti-depressants in order to help people suffering from the condition.
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