Opioid crisis hits middle-aged
BRITAIN is in the grip of a growing opioid crisis, with middle-aged women fuelling a 60 per cent rise in the number of strong painkillers, anxiety medications and antidepressants prescribed in the past decade.
Doctors warned that the situation could become “devastating” – aping an epidemic in the US. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that 141million prescriptions were issued for such drugs last year – up from 89million in 2008.
Twice as many antidepressants were issued, while prescriptions for painkillers containing opioids have risen by more than a fifth.
Some types of drugs used to treat anxiety have seen a seven-fold rise in prescriptions, figures from NHS Digital show, with a fourfold rise in prescriptions for some types of pain relief.
Tomorrow the Government will
publish a review of prescription drug addiction, with recommendations about how to tackle the growing crisis.
It follows warnings that two thirds of those on “dependence-forming medicines” are female, and typically in their 50s and 60s, prescribed pills by GPs to treat pain, anxiety and insomnia.
The review covers benzodiazepines and z-drugs, pregabalin and gabapentin, opioid pain medicines and antidepressants. Across all such medications, the number of prescriptions has risen by 59 per cent in a decade.
Antidepressants are included because officials say some suffer severe symptoms trying to come off the drugs, even though they are not generally recognised as dependence-forming.
Duncan Stephenson, deputy chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said: “We need to ensure that there is support out there for GPs to consider other courses of action.”
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has pledged to introduce “cigarette style” warnings on medicines packaging about the risks of addiction.
Dr Andrew Green, a GP who represented the British Medical Association during the PHE review, said: “We have seen the devastation that addiction to prescription drugs has had in the United States, and while the problem here is on a lesser scale, doctors in the UK are concerned.”
Karen Tyrell, from drug and alcohol charity Addaction, said the findings were “worrying”.
Dr Keith Ridge, NHS chief pharmaceutical office, said: “The NHS is doing its bit to ensure England does not become like some other countries where addiction is at crisis level.”
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that the UK has the world’s third fastest-growing rate of opioid use, behind Israel and Colombia.
The PHE review focuses on prescription medications. But some opiate-based drugs, such as codeine-based painkillers, are available over the counter.