Effect status: more antidepressants are being bought in Russia
Sales of antidepressants in January–March 2026 increased by 22% compared to the same period last year, analysts told Izvestia. This is a continuation of last year's trend — for the whole of 2025, 23% more packages were sold than in 2024. The demand for neuroleptics, drugs for the treatment of serious mental disorders, as well as tranquilizers, has also increased. They are prescribed for anxiety disorders. The reasons for this phenomenon are described in the Izvestia article.
How is the demand for antidepressants changing
Antidepressants have become one of the fastest-growing groups of drugs in the Russian pharmaceutical market by the end of 2025, as well as the first quarter of 2026, Nikolai Bespalov, Director of Development at RNC Pharma, an analytical company, told Izvestia.
So, in 2025, 23.4 million packages of antidepressants were sold (+23% compared to 2024). In the first quarter, growth continued and amounted to 22% compared to the same period last year, or 6.4 million packages.
Russians have become more likely to buy antidepressants, as the number of anxiety and depressive disorders increases from year to year, says psychiatrist Igor Lazarev.
— People started going to doctors, it used to be considered shameful. Now it has become more accessible, such assistance is not discriminated against," he told Izvestia. — The second point, of course, is a stressful situation. For the past six years, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been moving from one stress to another.
According to Rosstat, in 2015 there were 317.2 thousand diagnoses of mental disorders that occur without a state of psychosis (for example, anxiety and depression), then in 2024 — 341.4 thousand.
Lev Perezhogin, a psychotherapist and MD, believes that the increase in sales of "happiness pills" was influenced by the fact that Russians have become more attentive to anxiety. In such situations, they turn to doctors more often than before, who prescribe antidepressants.
Igor Lazarev reminded that antidepressants should be taken precisely and exclusively as prescribed by a doctor.
— But everything is not so clear here, — he noted. — Doctors of other specialties, such as gastroenterologists, neurologists, and internists, often began to prescribe such drugs. But sometimes they don't know all the nuances of their application.
Who is prescribed antidepressants?
As a rule, such drugs are prescribed only for severe depression, anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder or other serious conditions after a thorough assessment by a psychiatrist, explained Ekaterina Elizarova, a specialist at the Alter psychological platform.
According to the Headway Company monitoring company, in 2025, antidepressants were most often bought in Moscow, with the Krasnoyarsk Territory in second place and St. Petersburg in third.
Antidepressants are also prescribed to teenagers and children, experts told Izvestia. Earlier, Izvestia wrote that the number of diagnoses related to mental and behavioral disorders that are diagnosed in adolescents aged 15-17, according to Rosstat, has been steadily growing over the past 10 years: if in 2015 there were 18.5 thousand, then in 2024 (the latest available data) — 28.3 thousand (+53%).
"Given the increase in mental illnesses, children are more likely to need drugs from the group of antidepressants and antipsychotics," said Tatiana Mozolevskaya, a pediatric neurologist and pediatrician at the Be Healthy clinic on Sushchevsky Val.
The demand for psychological help among children and adolescents has been steadily growing for several years, Maria Ignatieva, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, supervisor, and director of customer support for the Yasno service, told Izvestia.
— Anxiety disorders, depressive episodes, and eating disorders have become the most frequent requests among teenagers. These include difficulties in concentrating and disrupting emotional regulation, as well as the inability to manage intense experiences," she said.
According to the psychotherapist, in some cases children are prescribed drugs, although first of all they need psychotherapy and a change in family dynamics.
"A pharmacological solution is faster and more convenient for all participants in the system, but a symptom that has been removed with medication without working with its cause returns or finds another way out,— says Maria Ignatieva.
Growth in sales of neuroleptics
The number of sales of neuroleptics (antipsychotics), drugs that treat serious mental disorders, is also growing, said Nikolai Bespalov. According to him, in 2025, Russians bought 11% more packages of such tablets than in 2024 - 14.3 million.
The increase is also visible in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. It amounted to 9%: at the beginning of 2026, 3.7 million packages were sold.
Neuroleptics are most often bought in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Moscow region.
Sales of tranquilizers (anxiolytics) are also growing — these are drugs designed to relieve anxiety and emotional stress, Izvestia has calculated. So, in 2024, Russians bought 3.7 million packages of drugs, and in 2025 — 4 million.
In 2025, these medicines were most often purchased in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Moscow and the Rostov Region.
Neuroleptics were previously used to treat schizophrenia, but now the indications for use have been expanded, explained Igor Lazarev. And there must be serious reasons for their appointment.
Sometimes antidepressants are combined with antipsychotics for a more effective result in depression, Lev Perezhogin added. In addition, antipsychotics are used to treat Tourette's syndrome (sudden muscle contractions).
Tranquilizers can be addictive, so they are also prescribed only according to indications, the psychiatrist emphasized.
— There is such a drug addiction that then you have to treat it in a hospital. It's practically withdrawal," warned Igor Lazarev.
He noted that it is advisable to take tranquilizers in a short course and under the supervision of a doctor.
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