Opioid analgesics will soon have to carry an important warning about the risk of addiction in order to address growing concerns about prescription and over-the-counter medications.
According to data from the Department of Health, prescriptions for opioid-based drugs have increased by 60% over the last 10 years, reaching 23 million per year.
The drugs, derived from opium, have a sedative effect and can cause feelings of pleasure.
The United Kingdom is one of the largest consumers of opioids in Europe. Yet while drugs are extremely effective against acute pain in an emergency, they do not even work in 90% of long-term chronic pain cases.
Long-term addiction to prescription medications can have disruptive consequences and side effects similar to illicit drugs.
<div data-embed-data = "
"data-on-all-screens =" true ">
Sorry, this content is not available on your device.
Users may develop tolerance and need stronger doses to have the same effect, and suffer withdrawal symptoms when they try to quit.
Although the risk is considerably lower than that of illicit opioids such as heroin, an overdose of prescription painkillers can still kill the user.
A number of well-known figures have acknowledged their reliance on prescription drugs, including Ant McPartlin of the duo Ant and Dec.
The presenter was open about his stays in rehab to try to combat his reliance on painkillers, which began after a knee surgery in 2015.
The opioid crisis in the United States is so severe that in 2017, the country's Department of Health declared a national emergency.
He estimated that in 2017, 11.4 million people in the country were abusing prescription painkillers.
Drug dependence can have devastating consequences for the user.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced on Sunday that the packaging of common medications such as morphine or fentanyl will now include a warning informing patients of the risk of addiction.
Dr. Hancock said, "I am extremely concerned by the recent increase in the number of opioid addicts.
"Painkillers have been a breakthrough in modern medicine and are extremely important in helping people manage pain along with their busy lives – but they must be treated with caution.
"We know that too much painkillers can harm your health and that some opioids are highly addictive and can ruin lives, in the manner of an illegal drug."
"Things are not as bad here as in America, but we must act now to protect people from the dark side of painkillers.
"We need to focus more on the need to ensure that these drugs are used appropriately and only for the treatment of pain, and to ensure that people are fully aware of the risks."
The wording of the warning should be based on the guidelines of the Expert Working Group on Opioids of the Commission for Medicinal Products for Human Use and will be enforced by the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency. (MHRA).
<div data-embed-data = "
"data-on-all-screens =" true ">
Sorry, this content is not available on your device.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England, said, "We know that long-term use of painkillers can lead to life-altering addictions and are sometimes fatal. codeine and prescription drugs.
"It is essential that anyone who is prescribed powerful painkillers take them only as long as they suffer from severe pain.
"As soon as the pain begins to subside, the drugs have done their job and it is important to switch to over-the-counter medications such as paracetamol, which do not have the same risk of dependence as the long-term."
A specific deadline for the introduction of the warning has not yet been set, but the regulator thinks that a review could be completed in the year.
A spokesman for the MHRA said: "We are working as quickly as possible to introduce regulatory changes once all the evidence has been evaluated.
"These labeling changes are the first step in a number of regulatory measures under development.
"It will take some time for the new packaging to reach patients.
"Although we did not give specific time to the expert working group, we asked them to work quickly and, given the progress already made, we anticipate that the review will be completed. in 2019. "
