Dishing out more drugs won’t stop the pain. Doctors need new tools | Ann Robinson As a GP, I know opioids have their place. But we shouldn’t be complacent about a US-style crisis happening in Britain
Growing concern about the prescription of drugs that cause dependence has been backed up by a recent report from Public Health England (PHE). The agency discovered that in 2017-18, 13% of adults in England received at least one prescription for opioids such as morphine or oxycodone (although this represented a slight downturn in prescribing after a long upward trend). Other drug classes were implicated too, with 25% of adults prescribed one or more of the following drugs: benzodiazepines (such as Valium), z-drugs (sleeping pills such as Zopiclone), gabapentinoids (gabapentin or pregabalin, prescribed for neuropathic pain) or antidepressants.
The fear is that the UK is following in the footsteps of the US, where overprescribing is said to have led to a full-blown “opioid crisis”. The Guardian
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Growing concern about the prescription of drugs that cause dependence has been backed up by a recent report from Public Health England (PHE). The agency discovered that in 2017-18, 13% of adults in England received at least one prescription for opioids such as morphine or oxycodone (although this represented a slight downturn in prescribing after a long upward trend). Other drug classes were implicated too, with 25% of adults prescribed one or more of the following drugs: benzodiazepines (such as Valium), z-drugs (sleeping pills such as Zopiclone), gabapentinoids (gabapentin or pregabalin, prescribed for neuropathic pain) or antidepressants.
The fear is that the UK is following in the footsteps of the US, where overprescribing is said to have led to a full-blown “opioid crisis”. The Guardian
See also:
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