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The Guardian: Can going to therapy become as straightforward as going to the gym?
15 April 2019
A decade ago, one in six people had depression or chronic anxiety, but only a quarter of them were receiving treatment - mostly drugs. The government's then happiness tsar, the economist Richard Layard, suggested that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was as effective as drugs and was preferred by most patients. Layard's plan to scale up CBT for people with depression and anxiety was ditched by David Cameron's 2010 government, but the problem remains. The government has estimated that about half of days taken off work in 2017/18 were due to stress, depression or anxiety.