Diagnosed five years ago with depression at the age of 19, Ms Ashley Poo was prescribed a daily dose of fluvoxamine — an antidepressant meant to treat her depressive symptoms.

However, her experience with the drug was far from pleasant even at the beginning.

Almost immediately after starting the medication, she had uncomfortable bouts of nausea, a loss of appetite and even increased suicidal thoughts.

The now 24-year-old project coordinator said that these side effects lasted for about a month before they started to dissipate — and November marks exactly five years since Ms Poo began her regular course of antidepressants.

Ms Poo is part of a growing group of young adults in Singapore in recent years who have been prescribed with a class of antidepressants known as "selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors”, or SSRIs.

SSRIs have been around since the late 1980s and are the most commonly prescribed type of antidepressants. They work by increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood.

They may be used to treat a number of mental health conditions in addition to depression, such as anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said that around 53,000 patients were prescribed SSRIs yearly in 2022 and 2023. This is up from the average of 50,000 a year between 2017 and 2021.

On the whole, prescriptions for SSRIs increased by a “compound annual growth rate of 5 per cent” from 2018 to 2022, MOH added. This equates to an increase of at least 20 per cent in that period.

Although 2023 saw a 3.8 per cent fall in all SSRI prescriptions, various general practitioner (GP) and specialist clinics told CNA TODAY that they have observed more young adults seeking help for mental health conditions such as depression since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If the ages of patients prescribed with SSRIs are dissected, the proportion of young adults aged 18 to 24 has increased somewhat steadily — from 11.2 per cent in 2017 to 15.5 per cent in 2021, before standing at 14 per cent last year.

The overall increase in antidepressant prescriptions is not surprising for several reasons, doctors said.

For one thing, mental illness has undergone substantial “destigmatisation” in society.

Dr Victor Kwok, medical director and senior consultant psychiatrist at Private Space Medical, said that he has seen “a lot more&rdq...