Dear Ms Holliday,
Thank you for your email of 7 April to Anne Milton, Minister for
Public Health, and Andrew Lansley, which you asked to be copied to me
and some of my colleagues about addiction to prescription medicines.
I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Ministers and the
Department of Health.
I was sorry to read about the problems your partner John Perrott has
had due to addiction to benzodiazepines. However, I am sure that you
will appreciate that due to the Data Protection Act it would not be
appropriate for the Department of Health to discuss details of Mr
Perrott’s case with you.
However, I can confirm that the Department of Health is working hard
to prevent people getting addicted to prescribed and over-the-counter
medicines such as benzodiazepines. Where people fall into a cycle of
dependency, the Department is determined to get them off drugs and
help them stay off. This is why the Department has placed recovery at
the heart of its strategy. Addiction to prescription drugs, such as
benzodiazepines, can be just as serious as addiction to illegal drugs
and that is why the Department is taking steps to tackle this problem.
Until now, UK literature on the prevalence of benzodiazepine misuse
and dependence in the UK has been limited. Guidance issued to doctors
recommends that benzodiazepines should only be used for two to four
weeks for severe and disabling anxiety, or severe or disabling
insomnia. The Department’s main focus has been to advise on
preventing such dependence occurring in the first place, by warning
GPs of the potential side-effects of prescribed medicines and the
dangers of involuntary addiction to benzodiazepines.
This is an issue to which local NHS organisations need to give close attention.
As you know, the Department recently commissioned two studies to
provide evidence on the problems caused by addiction to medicine and
the level of current service provision. These were conducted by the
National Addiction Centre (NAC) and the National Treatment Agency
(NTA) for Substance Misuse at Kings College London and provide an
important insight into the issue of addiction to medicines. These
studies were published today and will inform future guidance and
policy, such as the development of new Royal College of GPs guidelines
for the use of benzodiazepine and similar drugs in general practice.
The results of the studies are available on the NTA and NAC websites
and can be accessed by clicking on the following website links:
http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/addcition-to-medicines-2011.pdf
GPs at the Substance Misuse Management in General Practice conference
will now consider what the implications of these two studies are for
general practice and how best to prevent and manage addiction to
medicines.
The Department will also be engaging widely with interested parties to
determine the future direction of policy and service planning.
I hope this reply is helpful.
Yours faithfully,
Mary Heaton
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health
11 May 2011