OPINION Our stressed teens need compassion, not chill pills

Sir James Black’s development of the drug propranolol was a positive step in recent medical history.

Anxiety ruins lives and crushes potential. There are many good reasons why beta blockers have become some of the most widely prescribed drugs in the country.

They are efficient, have few serious side effects and have no impact on the brain.

Taken in the correct doses, they regulate the heart rate and allow people to accomplish tasks they would be otherwise unable to undertake.

From a golfer heading into the final day of a major tournament to ordinary workers who couldn’t be in an office environment without them, beta blockers have been a force for good.

But when propranolol is linked to the deaths of two bright young teenagers in the space of two years, there is a serious problem which must be properly addressed.

One of the first questions which must be asked is whether the number of teenagers – and teenage girls in particular – being prescribed drugs for anxiety is rising too quickly. If so, some of the reasons why would be quickly understandable.

Peer pressure, delivered instantly and at times inescapably through social media, has never been more intensely prevalent.

Feelings of being judged daily are bound to create moods of anxiety and stress.

That’s before the perennial monsters of money, parents and relationships are taken into consideration.

2018 is the Year of Young People – but the reality is that the generations ahead have left post-millennials a tough legacy.

Derided as snowflakes even in some sections of the mainstream media, the truth is somewhat different.

As teenagers become adults they deserve all the help they can get in a quickly changing, more polarised world.

Much more attention has to be paid to combating threats to their happiness and wellbeing. Especially those coming relentlessly through their mobile phones.

Beta blockers are drugs which should be used sparingly and situationally.

We can’t allow a propranolol culture to develop among our teenagers and young adults.

Not in lieu of a proper attempt to tackle the causes of stress and anxiety among the young at their roots.

And certainly not when it is claiming the lives of some of our best and brightest like Lucy Curran and Britney Mazzoncini.

Feelings of being judged daily are bound to create moods of anxiety and stress

Too high a price has already been paid.