Fears over addictive anxiety pill linked to rising death toll
CORONERS have raised concerns about a widely used anxiety medicine that has the fastest-rising death toll of any drug in the UK.
Doctors issued 8.6 million prescriptions for the highly addictive drug pregabalin in England in 2022.
The anticonvulsant, which has been linked to almost 3,400 deaths in the past five years, was initially developed as a treatment for epilepsy.
But experts say it is being prescribed for anxiety because patients are struggling to access non-chemical alternatives, such as therapy.
Analysis of all drug deaths in England and Wales shows that pregabalin has the fastest growth in deaths, with 779 in 2022, 100 times more than in 2011.
Patients describe the withdrawal effects of pregabalin as ‘ hell on earth’. They say they were not warned about the dangers when first prescribed the drug.
About 8 million people have an anxiety disorder, according to Mental Health UK.
Dr Iain Brew, who has spent decades working in community drug treatment services, said: ‘There’s a woeful lack of provision in psychology and it’s easier and cheaper to chuck drugs at a patient, but drugs aren’t the answer.’ He is calling for closer scrutiny of how pregabalin is prescribed and greater support for patients coming off it. He told the Sunday Times: ‘We don’t want these drugs to be banned, we just don’t want them being abused and killing patients.
‘When barbiturate drugs first came out, doctors thought “great, a way of helping people cope with life”. They got overprescribed and a lot of people died.
‘Then benzodiazepines came out, and everyone got prescribed them, and it became apparent there was addiction, then sleeping pills, and everyone got addicted again. It’s happening again with pregabalin.’ Pregabalin, which was made a class C drug in 2019, creates powerful euphoric effects and is sought out by recreational drug users.
Last month, the Daily Mail revealed that Peaky Blinders actor Paul Anderson was fined after being found with drugs reportedly including pregabalin.
When pregabalin is mixed with other drugs such as opiates or alcohol, it can cause severe slow, shallow breathing and death.
Dental receptionist Chloe Caton, 21, died last summer after using non-prescribed pregabalin and three other drugs. An inquest in November at Stoke Town Hall heard she had depression and anxiety, and accidentally overdosed on sleeping medication.
In January, Sean Cummings, a coroner in Bedfordshire, issued a prevention of future death report after Joy Ebanks, 59, died from an overdose of pregabalin and oxycodone.
He quoted research that questioned the effectiveness of pregabalin and highlighted that dependence on it ‘was increasingly recognised as a problem’.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said it is for doctors to decide on the best course of treatment, but it had introduced measures to reduce overprescribing and explored the effectiveness of alternatives.
‘Withdrawal is like hell on earth’