Cut down on tranquilliser prescriptions, GPs warned 

 Chief medical officer plans dosage crackdown to reduce dependence 
 James Meikl, health correspondent
 Wednesday February 11, 2004
 The Guardian 

 The chief medical officer has warned doctors that far too many
 tranquillisers are being prescribed, exposing thousands of
 patients to potential addiction and damage to their health. 

 Drugs such as Valium and Librium - once popularly known as
 "mother's little helper" - should only be used for a month at
 the most and only for people with distressing symptoms of anxiety. 

 Prof Donaldson claims some success in reducing usage, from
 15.8m prescriptions by GPs in England in 1992 to 12.7m in
 2002. But he recognises that 30% of these are still for 56 or
 more tablets, suggesting "a high number of patients are
 receiving long-term treatment". This, he adds, is dangerous,
 exposing patients to risk of traffic accidents, dependence, and,
 among older patients, debilitating falls ...

 there has been mounting concern in recent years that the
 potential for misuse of the drugs has not been adequately
 recognised by doctors too ready to continue prescribing them. 

 But campaigners say the measures do not go far enough. 
 Heather Ashton, emeritus professor of clinical
 psychopharmacology at Newcastle University, says the drugs
 are making patients dependent at all stages of life, with older
 people taking them as sleeping pills or being administered them
 to keep them quiet in retirement homes. 

 Psychiatric patients are kept on them, she says, long after
 discharge from hospitals, while pregnant women may be in
 danger of passing on health problems to their babies. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1145324,00.html

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