Shell-shocked troops are being fobbed off with anti-depressants instead of getting the help they need

SHELL-shocked troops are fobbed off with anti-depressants instead of getting help they need, it was claimed.

More than 22,000 servicemen and women were prescribed drugs such as Prozac in the past three years. including bomb disposal officers.

A Freedom of Information request shows one in 20 in the Armed Forces on anti-depressants last year.

Military Cross hero, former Staff Sergeant Trevor Coult, 43, was diagnosed with PTSD and prescribed the antidepressant Citalopram.

Trevor from Suffolk, said: “I wasn’t suffering from depression. They’re given out far too easily.”

The MoD said: “Fewer than three per cent of those in the Army have been prescribed anti- depressants each year.

“This is significantly lower than the prescription rate among the UK adult population.”