Moves to stem pill abuse

Moves are being taken to curb tranquiliser abuse
Paul Sims13 April 2012

Doctors are prescribing dangerous amounts of tranquillisers, the chief medical officer warned today.

Sir Liam Donaldson fears GPs are ignoring guidance to stop excessive prescription with drugs such as Valium and Librium readily available.

A million people a year are believed to use tranquillisers regularly with almost one in five misusing them.

The drugs are designed to offer short-term relief to anxiety and are also used to help people sleep. But they can quickly become addictive and can cause confusion, lethargy, poor co-ordination and can affect people's ability to drive.

With alcohol or other, illegal drugs, they can cause medical complications.

The Government is now planning to introduce new restrictions under which patients will have to return to the pharmacist several times to collect capsules or tablets over the course of treatment.

In 2001, tranquillisers were implicated in 222 drug-related deaths, almost four times the number linked to amphetamines and one in 13 of all drug-related deaths.

Although the number of prescriptions authorised by GPs has dropped from 15.8 million in 1992 to 12.7 million in 2002 the figures are still dangerously high.

Professor Donaldson argues that 'a large number of patients are receiving longterm treatment' with 30 per cent of prescriptions still for 56 or more tablets.

To minimise further the number of patients receiving excessive doses the Government also plans to introduce 'instalment dispensing' of the tranquillisers.

This will allow a GP to write a single prescription that the pharmacist is able to dispense over several days.

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'The scheme will give more control to doctors and reduce the risk substantially of a patient misusing the drug."'

Under the new controls pharmacists will receive extra payments. Doctors who fail to observe guidelines could face disciplinary action from NHS trusts or the General Medical Council.

But campaigners say the measures do not go far enough. Barry Haslam, founder of the Beat the Benzos campaign, said: 'Benzo addicts get their fix from GPs.

If they went out robbing and causing mayhem, the Government would have acted years ago.'

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