Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing for advice on an issue that Liberty has helped with before, which is the issue of the huge number of patients who have been damaged by addictive prescribed tranquillisers.
The applicants to the European Commission of Human Rights in January 1998 were represented by Philip Leach (Solicitor) of Liberty and Andrew Buchan (Barrister) under Article 10, a right to a fair trial.
These applicants had all suffered extremely serious personal injuries as a result of being prescribed addictive benzodiazepine tranquilliser drugs. They were all plaintiffs in multi-party litigation against two companies which manufactured the drugs. This application to the European Commission of Human Rights arose out of the striking out of their case by the UK courts after the withdrawal of legal aid funding from their case. No action was taken by the ECHR.
Although I was not involved in this litigation I have also suffered from the mis-prescribing of these drugs. As a result of my own experiences I have become a supporter and researcher for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Involuntary Tranquilliser Group, chaired by Jim Dobbin MP (website www.appgita.com) and I have worked with other victims of these drugs, including Michael Behan, who co-organised the original 1986/96 litigation.
I have provided links so that you may read the following submission which was made by the APPGITA to the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 20 July 2009 Submission to Equalities and Human Rights Commission followed by this complaint on 22 August 2010 Letter from Jim Dobbin MP to Equality and Human Rights Commission These will both give you some background to the issues involved.
My case is similar to those involved in the original litigation. I was prescribed the benzodiazepine, Ativan/lorazepam, in 1975 and was told it was safe to use and I was not informed that it was highly addictive with the potential for long-term or permanent damage.
A succession of GPs, who did not have any knowledge of safe withdrawal methods to reverse the addiction they had caused in the first place, then fed this addiction by prescribing me Ativan for the next 35 years, ignoring the 1988 Committee on the Safety of Medicines guidelines (and numerous subsequent guidelines) that they should only be prescribed for 2-4 weeks, and then for severe and disabling anxiety only.
I suffered over 40 physical and psychological symptoms during and post-withdrawal. These symptoms were painful, bizarre, mind altering, terrifying and relentless. I have still not recovered after 19 months abstinence.
I now realise that I have been unnecessarily drugged for 35 years, that I did not have the opportunity to give my informed consent and at no point was I offered a safe exit route from this addiction. There is still no treatment and no indication if these withdrawal symptoms are ever going to end. From the time of deciding to withdraw from these drugs I have received no NHS support or appropriate treatment.
I have lost the ability to earn an income, to drive a car, to travel, to have a family life, to have a social life or indeed any life at all.
My point is that this is what is happening to many thousands of patients and the Department of Health continue to resist taking any action.
The Department of Health have been aware that doctors have ignored prescribing guidelines which has resulted in an estimated 1.5 million patients to be addicted to this medication for decades, but have taken no action. The problem has been sustained by a flawed system of government advisers, experts and regulators. The APPGITA has suggested solutions to the Department of Health on a number of occasions over the last few years, including provision of dedicated specialist withdrawal clinics based on the work of Professor Ashton, a leading world expert on benzodiazepines. Professor Ashton, Emeritus Professor of Psychopharmacology at Newcastle University, ran a withdrawal clinic from 1982-1994 with a 90% success rate.
MPs and I have written to the Department on numerous occasions highlighting the following and requesting remedial action. Not one of these points has been answered, either to me or those MPs.
1. Exclusion of involuntary tranquilliser addicts from appropriate withdrawal treatment by the Department of Health.
2. Failure to treat or recognise the tranquilliser post-withdrawal syndrome by the Department of Health.
3. Failure to provide research into long-term or permanent damage caused by tranquillisers including following up Professor Lader’s studies in 1980, which showed 7/14 long-term users had brain damage.
4. Failure to address tranquilliser induced fatalities including suicide, seizures, respiratory depression etc.
5. Non-recognition of the illness of involuntary tranquilliser addiction or post-withdrawal syndrome in processing benefit claims. (Department of Work and Pensions)
6. Failure to provide back to work support or rehabilitation for tranquilliser addicts and ex-addicts, particularly in the arrangements introduced under the Welfare Reform Bill (DWP).
7. Failure to collect relevant statistics on involuntary tranquilliser addiction.
8. Failure to address premature death caused by benzodiazepine induced ill-health -use of sleeping pills and minor tranquillisers increases the risk of premature death by more than a third according to a study published in the September 2010 issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
9. Failure to address benzodiazepine teratogenicity or “benzo babies” causing birth abnormalities by exposure to benzodiazepines in utero.
Under the Human Rights Act 1998, Article 3, it states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” And benzodiazepine addiction qualifies as torture in many ways:
The addiction itself involves many side effects http://www.benzo.org.uk/sidefx.htm Tolerance also occurs where withdrawal symptoms are experienced whilst on a fixed dose of the drug requiring an increase in dosage and also inter-dose withdrawal symptoms are often experienced when using short acting benzodiazepines such as Ativan.
Tranquilliser withdrawal may take up to 2 years of tortuous and painful physical and psychological symptoms http://www.benzo.org.uk/votsymp.htm
These are often mis-diagnosed by doctors as new symptoms and patients then have to suffer the effects of polypharmacy.
Abrupt (cold turkey) withdrawals are often imposed by doctors, GPs, psychiatrists and the National Treatment Agency, who frequently do not understand benzodiazepines, causing further distress.
Protracted withdrawal symptoms may persist for years, causing prolonged physical and mental distress, and in some patients for so long as to represent permanent damage i.e. more than 10 years http://www.benzo.org.uk/pws04.htm
Violations of Article 3 result from all of these, i.e. the failure to treat patients appropriately; treating patients against their wishes or without their consent as they were not informed of the risks involved in taking these drugs and therefore cannot be deemed to have given their consent and; withholding proper medical care in a case where someone is suffering from a serious illness.
I can provide further evidence in electronic form in support of my case.
Would it be possible for Liberty to consider representing us in this matter in a further submission to the European Court of Human Rights? We have had Parliamentary debates, Parliamentary Questions and Early Day Motions in both Houses and all to no avail. It is possible to proceed with only myself, or a number of people, whichever would be most likely to succeed.
I have the support of MPs and members of the House of Lords in this matter.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely
John Perrott