Mail victory as painkillers carry addiction warning
POWERFUL painkillers are to carry cigarette- style warnings about the risk of addiction, in a victory for the Daily Mail.
Doctors are doling out opioid painkillers such as tramadol and oxycodone in huge numbers, driving a crisis in addiction to prescription drugs.
The problem – which has risen 60 per cent in the past decade – often arises when people are given drugs after an operation but are then left on them for months or years.
Patients become hooked through no fault of their own and with little access to help.
The Mail, backed by charities and MPs, has been campaigning for two years for the Government to recognise the scale of the crisis.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced yesterday that packaging on medications such as morphine or fentanyl will now have to carry a warning informing patients about addiction risk.
‘I have been incredibly concerned by the recent increase in people addicted to opioid drugs,’ he said. ‘We know that too much of any painkiller can damage your health, and some opioids are highly addictive and can ruin lives like an illegal drug.’
The wording of the warning must be based on guidance from the Commission on Human Medicines’ opioid expert working group – and will be enforced by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Prescriptions for opioid-based medication have increased 60 per cent in the past ten years, from 14million to 23million annually.
In the same period, the number of codeine- related deaths in England and Wales has more than doubled and co-codamol deaths have also increased.
The drugs, derived from opium, have a sedative effect and can cause feelings of pleasure. But a long-term dependency on prescription drugs can have lifechanging consequences and similar side-effects to illegal drugs.
Users can build up tolerance and need stronger doses to have the same effect – suffering withdrawal symptoms when trying to quit.
Mr Hancock insisted the situation in the UK was not as bad as in the US – where the government has declared a national emergency over the opioid crisis – but he admitted: ‘We must act now to protect people from the darker side to painkillers.’ A number of high-profile figures have admitted a dependency on prescription drugs, notably Ant McPartlin of the showbiz duo Ant and Dec.
The Britain’s Got Talent presenter has been open about stints in rehab trying to tackle his addiction to painkillers, which began after a knee operation in 2015.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Government’s chief medical officer, said: ‘It is vital that anyone who is prescribed strong painkillers takes them only as long as they are suffering from serious pain.’
And a spokesman for the MHRA said: ‘These labelling changes are a first step in a number of regulatory measures being developed. It will take a certain amount of time for the new packaging to reach patients.
‘While we have not given the expert working group a specific deadline, we have asked them to work promptly and, given the progress already made, we anticipate that the review will be completed in 2019.’