The increasing multiple crisis situation has started to deteriorate the mental health of the people in Turkey, where there is an alarming increase in the use of both drugs and antidepressants.

Society in Turkey has become more and more unhappy with each passing day and its mental health has deteriorated even more. According to the 2023 World Happiness Index, Turkey ranks 105th among 137 countries. Turkey’s society openly declares that it does not feel happy. With the deterioration of mental health, society turns to legal or illegal drugs as a remedy against problems. Stating that the health of society in Turkey is deteriorating at a horrible level day by day due to the continuous economic crisis and uncertainty, earthquakes, the epidemic process and the polarisation by the government, experts explain anxiety disorder, depression, concern for the future, cognitive dysfunction as the trigger of this picture.

According to OECD data, the amount of antidepressant consumption per thousand people in Turkey was 27.8 in 2008, and increased to 48.9 in 2019. Data from the Turkish Ministry of Health was not disclosed after 2022. In 2020 alone, $139 million was spent on the purchase of antidepressant drugs, ranking 4th in the world.

According to the data disclosed by CHP Deputy Chairperson Burhanettin Bulut in a written question submitted to the Parliament during the year, the use of antidepressants in Turkey has increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years. Accordingly, the number of antidepressant drugs legally sold in Turkey between 2013 and 2023 is as follows:

* 2013: 37,258,388

* 2014: 39,134,225

* 2015: 43,467,736

* 2016: 45,134,854

* 2017: 48,226,812

* 2018: 49,043,763

* 2019: 49,857,089

* 2020: 54,625,964

* 2021: 59,641,014

* 2022: 61,870,998

* 2023: 65,451,831

Apart from the antidepressant drugs sold legally in Turkey, the increase in the use of antidepressants that are not registered and sold in pharmacies has reached serious dimensions. Antidepressant drugs, which should be sold with a prescription and under the control of a doctor, are now sold in pharmacies without a prescription and unregistered. According to the General Directorate of Security report on drug use in Turkey, these drugs, which are sold unregistered, are used in the production of narcotic pills or are used as a narcotic substance themselves. In the report announced by the General Directorate of Security in 2023, the number of drugs seized in raids on pharmacies and pharmaceutical warehouses was explained as follows:

* 2021: 8,456,901

* 2022: 12,607,432

* 2023: 28,870,284