Prescription drug addiction: Growing issue to be probed in new review
THE growing problem of prescription drug addiction is to be reviewed by health officials, the Government has announced.Public health minister Steve Brine has commissioned Public Health England (PHE) to examine why one patient in every 11 was prescribed a potentially addictive drug last year.
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Mr Brine said the issue was a “huge problem” in countries such as the United States, adding: “we must absolutely make sure it doesn't become one here”.
Among the issues to be considered in the review are the 3 per cent increase in prescribing of “addictive medicines” over the last five years and why anti-depressant prescriptions have more than doubled in the past 10 years.
The Department of Health and Social Care said PHE will review the evidence and also make recommendations on how to address the issue.
It said many people benefit from medicines that treat problems like pain, anxiety and insomnia, but some of these medicines are highly addictive and result in dependence and withdrawal.
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Many will have sought help for a health problem only to find later on they have a further obstacle to overcome
The review will cover benzodiazepines and z-drugs, pregabalin and gabapentin, opioid pain medicines and antidepressants.While antidepressants are not generally recognised as dependence-forming, some patients experience difficulties when they try to stop taking them.
Mr Brine said: “We know this is a huge problem in other countries like the United States and we must absolutely make sure it doesn't become one here.
“While we are world-leading in offering free treatment for addiction, we cannot be complacent. That's why I've asked PHE to conduct this review.“
PHE has an excellent track record in robust evidence reviews, and this will help us understand the scale of this issue here and how we can address it.“
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Rosanna O'Connor, director of drugs, alcohol and tobacco at PHE, added: “It is of real concern that so many people find themselves dependent on or suffering withdrawal symptoms from prescribed medicines.
“Many will have sought help for a health problem only to find later on they have a further obstacle to overcome.“
PHE very much welcomes this opportunity as it is vital that we have the best understanding possible of how widespread these problems are, the harms they cause, as well as the most effective ways to prevent them happening and how best to help those in need.“
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence welcomed the move, saying the issue is a growing problem.
