A nation of prescription drug addicts

More die from abusing painkillers and tranquillisers than heroin and cocaine

ADDICTION to prescription drugs is so rife that more Britons die from taking painkillers and tranquillisers than heroin and cocaine.

There were 807 fatal overdoses involving prescription drugs last year, a rise of 16 per cent in five years, official figures show.

By comparison, there were 718 such deaths from taking heroin and cocaine, and numbers have been falling since 2005.

Experts have warned that GPs give out repeat prescriptions too easily and there is not enough support for addicts.

One helpline has calculated there are at l east 32,000 painkiller addicts in Britain, but even that is likely to be an underestimate.

Jim Dobbin, Labour MP and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on involuntary tranquilliser addiction, has called on the Government to take urgent action.

He said: ‘This can be long-term addiction and there is very little support for addicts. There needs to be more understanding of how serious this problem is.

‘Lives are being destroyed and people are being left without the help and support they need. The Government has refused to accept the scale of the problem.’

One GP has claimed that doctors are prescribing antidepressants ‘too easily’ – including in some cases for bereavement – when they should offer patients counselling.

Dr Des Spence, who practises in Glasgow, said: ‘There has been this rising culture of intervention with medication – whether it is for depression or anxiety or pain – and I think it can be very unhelpful.

‘It can erode people’s sense of wellbeing. The cure of these things is not necessarily in the gift of medicine.’

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show that deaths from abuse of strong painkillers and tranquillisers have been

‘Lives are being destroyed’

rising steadily, while those from opiates used for recreational purposes have declined.

Separate NHS statistics reveal that around 62million prescriptions were written for all types of painkillers last year, a 30 per cent rise in five years.

Britons also spend an estimated £500million a year buying painkillers at chemists.

Campaigners are particularly concerned at the high numbers of women becoming addicted to drugs prescribed by doctors.

Cathryn Kemp, 42, an author, became hooked on the painkiller fentanyl in 2007 after being given it for inflammation of the pancreas.

Although the drug is 50 times more powerful than heroin, she says she was not given any warnings about addiction.

Miss Kemp said: ‘The pain was like being eaten alive and it was the first medicine that took it away. It was like sinking into a lovely warm bath.

‘I was fighting a daily battle against pain and I found something that helped me in that battle. It took only a few months before I crossed that line between keeping to my prescription and taking more. I ended up on something I could just not get off.’

Miss Kemp, who has written a book, Painkiller Addiction: From Wreckage to Redemption, was initially prescribed eight pills a day, but later took up to 45 a day.

Although her GP confronted her about her addiction he continued writing out the prescriptions.

In 2010 she was forced to sell her Brighton home to pay for rehab and is no longer addicted.

She said: ‘There are so many people who are on sleeping pills, antidepressants, tranquillisers and strong painkillers. We are a medicated nation.’