A latest report on global health, which was released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), showed that Australia is now the second- highest user of antidepressant drugs in the world, local media ABC News reported on Friday.

According to the latest health "snapshot" report of the 33 OECD nations on world health, antidepressant prescription rates among Australians have doubled between 2000 to 2011, only following Iceland, the country with the highest rate of the use of the these medications worldwide.

People in richer countries like Canada and many Scandinavian nations are now using antidepressant medications at never seen before rates -- about one in 10 adults in these countries are now prescribed a daily dose of drugs, the report said.

Eighty-nine Australians in every 1,000 are now prescribed some form of daily antidepressant, comparing with around 45 people in every 1,000 a decade ago.

The growth of the rate has been especially evident since 2006, the year psychological care under Medicare insurance was introduced in Australia.

Professor Philip Mitchell, head of the University of New South Wales School of Psychiatry, told the media that over-prescription of the sedative drugs is now a problem in Australia.

"A number of years ago we published figures suggesting that there were reasonably healthy rates of prescribing because we saw that antidepressants were in fact reducing suicide rates, but I think this continued prescribing is suggestive of over- prescription." he said.

Some health experts suggested that patients who demand a quick fix and doctors who are coming under increasing pressure to deliver results should account for the sharply growing rates of over-prescription of antidepressant drugs.

However, some other experts thought it indicates that mental health treatments are finally catching up to the huge problem of depression and anxiety.

According to Professor Patrick McGorry, a mental health advocate and former Australian of the Year, the time pressure placed on general practitioners (GPs) may be a factor, along with the increased awareness of mental-health issues among medical professionals, to speed up over-prescription.

"We know that for many GPs they can only spend 8 to 12 minutes with a patient and it's simpler to write a script for that time. But I think what these figures are suggesting is that they should be taking a little more consideration. You know, it may be getting the patient back to talk to them later but it suggests that the option of moving to the prescription pad is happening much too quickly," Professor McGorry was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the concern from experts that a review of the Australian mental health system is long overdue has already increased.