Addictive drug prescriptions rise to 16.8m despite fall in those taking them

Prescriptions for addictive drugs have risen despite a fall in the number of people taking them.

NHS data for July to September has revealed that prescriptions for drugs such as opioids and other “dependency-forming medicines” have increased.

There were more than 16.8 million prescriptions over the three months for the class of drugs including opioids, gabapentinoids, benzodiazepines, and Z-drugs, the data from the NHS Business Services Authority revealed.

This was up by 0.8 per cent on the three months before – the equivalent of 130,000 extra prescriptions for the addictive drugs.

It was also an increase of 0.3 per cent on the same time last year.

Meanwhile, the number of patients receiving such drugs fell to its lowest on record outside of the six months at the start of the pandemic.

Some 4.39 million patients were prescribed these drugs in the most recent three months of available data, which was down by 0.76 per cent on the same time last year.

It is also down from a high of 4.78 million in April to June 2016 – the highest on record – when there were fewer total prescriptions at 16.5 million.

It means the number of prescriptions per patient over a three-month period has risen from 3.45 to near-record highs of 3.78 over that period of time.

The data suggest an increasing number of patients are taking more than one type of addictive drug during any three-month period.

The drugs include opioids such as morphine and codeine which are used to manage pain but are extremely addictive and cause withdrawal symptoms.

The data showed that opioids were the most prescribed dependency-forming drugs, with 9.85 million prescriptions for 3.32 million patients.

The total figure is up slightly on previous financial quarters but has remained largely unchanged in recent years.

Benzodiazepines, which include drugs such as xanax and Valium, are used to treat anxiety, insomnia, to relax muscles and prevent epileptic seizures.

Some 1.46 million prescriptions were given out for these drugs, but the figure has consistently fallen over time from about 2.2 million when records began.

Similarly, prescriptions for Z-drugs, which are used for insomnia and include zopiclone, have fallen to 1.23 million in the most recent quarter, from a high of 1.68 million.

The number of patients taking these drugs fell to record lows of about 458,000 and 391,000 people respectively.

The biggest increase was observed in gabapentinoids, which includes pregabalin and gabapentinoid, which is used to treat epilepsy and increasingly also given to patients with nerve pain.

A record 4.29 million prescriptions were given out for these drugs, up from 2.56 million less than 10 years ago, while they are also being given to 500,000 more patients, at 1.2 million.

The most common group to be prescribed such drugs were women aged 60 to 64, accounting for 287,000 of the total patients.

Those living in disadvantaged areas were more likely to be on addictive drugs, with 79.3 per cent more patients in the poorest areas of the country receiving them than in the least deprived.

The total cost of medicines prescribed was £93.5 million. This was a 1.02 per cent decrease from quarter two 2023/24 when the cost was £94.5 million.