Last year in Australia there were 29 million prescriptions written for medications related to mental health issues.

Anti-depressant medications accounted for nearly 60 per cent of these scripts, followed by anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drugs, according to the report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Each of these scripts would usually be for one month's supply and this suggests that 2.4 million Australians are using medication to control mental health problems, although some people use more than one medication.

The data was unveiled recently on the institute's new interactive mental health website, which also showed that more than $5.8 billion was spent by governments and private health insurance funds on mental health services in 2008-09.

Beyondblue spokesman, psychiatrist and Flinders University professor Michael Baigent said the fact so many Australians had sought treatment for their depression was a good thing, but he hoped they were also receiving psychological therapy with the pills they were being prescribed.

Brain and Mind Institute's Ian Hickie said the new AIHW figures showed there had been a 25.7 per cent increase in psychological services in the past five years and a 5 per cent increase in community mental health services, but only a 1.9 per cent increase in medication use.

This proved mental health policy was finally moving in the right direction, he said.

But he said more resources were needed because the World Economic Forum was now predicting that mental health problems had an economic impact and would account for 35 per cent of lost productivity by 2030.

Mental Health Council chief Frank Quinlan said people were "always concerned that medication is appropriate and not a substitute for a whole lot of psychosocial services that ought to be in place too".

The report came as doctors stepped up their campaign against federal government plans to slash the Medicare payments for GP mental health services from next month.

The Australian Medical Association yesterday presented a petition with more than 4000 signatures.

www.theaustralian.com.au