Maybe it could be linked to the stupidly high use of Ecstasy in the UK? I met up with some Brit’s over the New Years break who _regularly_ drop 5-6 pills a night. Ouch. That’d fry your seratinin cells…..

Actually, the antidepressants could be causing the British to be unhappy.&nbps; I’m only half-joking:
Study Backs Antidepressant-Suicide Link

The high level of prescriptions could also relate to there being a well-funded national health system that provides free medicines in the UK (but not in Ireland or the US).

It is much cheaper to live in Germany than in the UK or Ireland. In general, the roads are less congested there in my experience, and there is good quality, economically priced public transport.

My Irish co-workers circa 1998 – 2001 were pretty excited about the European Union’s effect on Ireland.

The relatively low cost of living and cheap real estate was attracting as many prosperous northern europeans as Greece’s beaches.

This may become onerous in the future (when the locals can’t afford to buy a house and their children are all pushed into service jobs), but for now there are plenty of reasons to be happy, and Irish.

On the other hand, American kids get diagnosed with ADD and treated with Ritalin way more often than British ones. Who needs crystal meth, when you get the real stuff straight from the doctor?

The British just keep reminding themselves how bad they have it, even when they don’t, and that leads to depression if you ask me. Put different people in the same conditions (ie: the Irish, as pointed out by others) and they make the most of it.

I also question the “absurdly high cost of living” you mention. While that may be true for London, the rest of the country seems to be quite different.

They have Guinness and Boddington’s, probably on tap most of the time… what do they need anti-depressants for?

And yet, just across the Irish sea you have the same bad weather, even higher cost of living, and the Economist tells us its the best place in the world. Perhaps its the congested roads:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4020523.stm

“Ireland is named ‘best country’

Dubliners have reason to be cheerful, the survey finds Ireland is the
best place to live in the world, according to a “quality of life”
assessment by Economist magazine.”

I think the keyword to pay attention to in their description of Britain’s lead in prescribing “antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs” is “to children”.