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Millions of Britons become addicted to analgesics
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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According to the National Health Service of Great Britain, annually more than 62 million patients are prescribed prescriptions for painkillers. Over the past five years, there has been a 30% increase in the number of people who need analgesics.
These figures are direct evidence of the present epidemic of dependence on pain medications.
Compared with 2010, in 2011 4% more prescriptions were prescribed - 62.5 million, and compared to 2006 this figure increased by 28% - then 48.5 million people were prescribed for prescription for analgesics.
In fact, the amount of consumption of these drugs is even greater, because such drugs as ibuprofen and paracetamol can be bought without a prescription, and in the UK they are sold even in supermarkets. A recent market research conducted by the analytical company SymphonyIRI Group shows that the annual increase in sales of analgesics without a prescription is 4.1%. Only in supermarkets was bought about six billion drugs.
Physicians are particularly concerned about the high level of consumption of drugs, which include codeine - opiate, belonging to the family of narcotic drugs. Such medicines include Solpadein Max, Nurofen Plus, Panadol Ultra and Sindol. These drugs cause a sense of relaxation and are in free sale.
The National Health Service of Great Britain notes that over the last three years, the demand for codeine-containing drugs has increased by 45%. Approximately 27 million packages of such pain relievers are sold without a prescription, and more than 2.5 million patients are prescribed by doctors every year.
David Grieve, the founder of the "Over-Count" telephone hotline, who can be called by those who feel dependent on drugs, says that the public treats anesthetics as any other product sold in stores. People do not believe that this medicine and do not understand all the possible consequences that can be after self-treatment.
David Grieve says that over the past few years, nearly 32,000 people have asked for help in the "Over-Count", who realized that the use of codeine-based drugs led them to dependency. Most of the victims were middle-income women. Grieve believes that this is only a small number of people who still decided to seek help. He also notes that many people get a prescription from a doctor is not a particular problem, in extreme cases, they act through nurses.
In 2011, there were more than 3.5 million prescriptions prescribed by doctors for the purchase of codeine-based drugs, in 2006 this figure was 2.4 million.
A survey of 2,000 adults, conducted in a pharmacy, showed that one in four takes pain medication. People explain it by stress and fatigue.
Doctors warn that long-term use of analgesics can cause harm to health. Paracetamol, if taken for a long time, can cause impaired liver and kidney function, and ibuprofen is dangerous because it can provoke peptic ulcer.
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