Experts report rising number of patients hooked on opiates
I was taking dozens every day...then GP gave me more
“The worst word for them is painkiller, as they never kill pain completely and once on them for a long time it makes you more sensitive to pain.”
He also said one of the issues with over- prescribing opioids is doctors have only a short time to assess patients.
He said: “GPS only have short consultation time to understand the whole person and their pain.
“Once people are on these drugs they very often don’t come off.”
Gareth Balmer, service manager for drug charity Addaction in Dundee, said the monitoring of patients on opiates must be strengthe n e d with more support for those who0 have developed addiction.
He said: “It is important for these medications to be reviewed so people aren’t on doses for long periods. We know it’s a weakness in the system.
“People think, ‘I’ll just take one more’ when the drugs stop working, and they become tolerant to them.
“Before they know it, they are given a month’s prescription and use it all in two weeks. They then go to the doctor to say they’ve lost their prescription, and that sort of thing might start.
“A lot of addiction services in Scotland are not set up to deal with over- the- counter and prescription medication addiction. It’s an itch we don’t want to scratch as it is a big issue.
“Some services can’t cope with their bread and butter work of heroin and cocaine use, so to open up that Pandora’s box of prescription medication problems… I don’t think there are resources to deal with it.”