British GPs’ prescriptions for opioid painkillers have risen sixfold since 1991 to 1.4 billion a year, according to the National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse. More than 500 million prescriptions a year are written for sedatives, sleeping pills and tranquillisers, and the prescribing of benzodiazepine tranquillisers for anxiety has also risen.
It bothers me.
These are colossal figures and they are very, very sad. Not only is level of prescribing unaffordable, but it is increasing – this is not sustainable health care! But more importantly, I feel, what about all the pain, sadness, anxiety, sleeplessness and so on which this prescribing is supposed to address? Shouldn’t we be developing and delivering health care (without drugs) which sustains health, which supports resilience and vitality, which helps people to cope with daily stresses, and shouldn’t we be getting a handle on what all this stress is about, and actually dealing with that? It seems our current social and economic system is well broken!
Heroes Not Zombies 