Drugs are being overprescribed to tackle mental health problems, campaigners argue, as spending on medication rises.

Antidepressants, antipsychotics and tranquillisers cost Haringey's mental health services £4.2 million last year - an increase of 40 per cent compared with three years ago.

Lib Dem Councillor Ron Aitken, who requested the figures from Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust, is worried doctors and carers are unable to cope with the increasing demand on mental health services.

He said: "Giving people antidepressants and anti-psychotics is not necessarily going to make people better on its own - there needs to be talking therapies as well.

"Many young people are prescribed anti-depressants where I think it may be more appropriate to be prescribed counselling."

Haringey Primary Care Trust prescribes more antidepressants than any other drug - last year it prescribed £776,000 worth of drugs.

This is in line with the national average, but spending on antipsychotics is double than in the rest of the country.

Between March 2007 and April 2008 Haringey doctors prescribed £1.7 m of antipsychotics.

In comparison, the Haringey Mental Health Trust has a budget for psychological therapies of £1.6 m - less than half of what is spent on drug therapy.

Chairman of Mental Health Carers Support Association, Ray Churchill, says it is not enough just to offer drugs to patients.

He said: "There's a tendency that when someone goes to the doctor, the first thing they do is prescribe antidepressants, which I think is wrong.

"Maybe they could look at other therapies and this would cut the cost of medication bills in Haringey.

"Mental illness can be lethal if it's not treated properly. In the long run you should be looking at counselling and getting patients off antidepressants as quickly as possible. It's not very well thought out."

A spokesman for the Haringey Mental Health Trust said more resources were being pumped into community services to prevent mental health problems before they occur.