More than 245,000 prescriptions for anti-depressant drugs were handed out to city residents in just a year.
Shocking new figures reveal demand for anti-depressants in Brighton and Hove has jumped by 30% in three years.
Countywide, NHS trusts handed out more than one million prescriptions in just one year at a cost of more than £7 million.
Counsellors have blamed the recession and an over reliance on medication for the dramatic rise.
But health bosses said the figures pointed to a better understanding of depression.
Brighton Primary Care Trust (PCT) saw the biggest rise in Sussex with a 30% increase in the number of prescriptions compared to 2007/8.
Last year, 245,000 prescriptions were issued at a cost of £1.4 million.
West Sussex PCT issued more than 625,000 anti-depressant prescriptions costing nearly £3.8 million in 2010/11 while NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald issued more than 290,000 prescriptions costing £1.8 million in the same period.
Both trusts have seen rises of around 25% in the last three years.
The figures come in the week that Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust announced one in eight beds will be cut at the only NHS mental health hospital in Brighton and Hove.
Read more on this story inside today's Argus.
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