Doctors’ warning: Up to 200,000 Scots at risk of addiction to prescribed painkillers

Up to 200,000 Scots are addicted to powerful prescription painkillers, The Sunday Post can reveal.

Doctors and addiction specialists have warned an increasing number of patients are becoming hooked on the powerful opiate painkillers such as morphine, tramadol and co-codamol.

One expert citing medical research suggested up to a fifth of the one million Scots prescribed the powerful painkillers will end up addicted.

Professor Jonathan Chick, medical director at Peebleshirebased Castle Craig rehab clinic, fears doctors prescribing the painkillers are unaware as patients develop addictions.

He said: “NHS doctors are sometimes put under extreme pressure to prescribe and may not have the resources to monitor how a medication is being used.

“We have seen a steady rise in the numbers of people specifically requesting help to break an addiction acquired when they had been prescribed such medications.

“They have been prescribed the painkillers for a ra n g e of conditions, from sports injuries to chronic arthritic pain.

“Studies have estimated 10-20% of people prescribed opioids will begin to crave higher doses and panic if supply is short or the dose is reduced.”

“When someone not accustomed to an opioid medication takes even slightly over the prescribed dose they may not wake up, especially if alcohol or diazepam or sleeping tablet was taken at the same time. They simply stop breathing.”

Medical professionals have warned people are not being properly assessed before being given the drugs, and once they start taking them they rarely stop.

Research suggests taking opiate painkillers long- term can make some patients even more sensitive to pain as well as weakening their immune system and affecting their balance, hormones and fertility.

Histor ically, people with terminal illnesses or cancer were given opiates to provide relief from excruciating agony, and rarely were they given to those with chronic conditions such arthritis and back pain.

Now, it is much more common to be on the drugs for years, with researchers discovering just 20% of people taking prescribed opiates had been able to come off them within three-and-a-half years.

Professor Blair Smith, consultant in pain medicine at Ninewells Hospital and a clinical director at Dundee University, said: “Opioids have been used for chronic pain without much evidence to show they are useful.