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Prescriptions to treat alcohol dependency have risen
by 73 per cent in a decade, according to figures from
the Health and Social Care Information Centre
(HSCIC). More than 178,000 prescriptions were
issued in 2012, compared to just under 168,000 the
previous year and fewer than 103,000 in 2003.
The 2012 figure is the highest number ever recorded
by HSCIC, with a ‘net ingredient cost’ of £2.93m, says
Statistics on alcohol: England, 2013
. The report
illustrated ‘the impact of alcohol misuse on hospitals in
England’, according to HSCIC.
‘It is extremely important that patients who are
dependent on alcohol have access to drugs that can help
them recover,’ said Royal College of Physicians advisor on
alcohol, Dr Nick Sheron. ‘However, the rise in prescriptions
of drugs to treat alcohol dependency is indicative of the
huge strain alcohol abuse puts on our society.’
While the report looked at the number of prescriptions
being used to treat dependency, the ‘real issue’ was ‘the
vast numbers of people who are not getting help for their
alcohol addiction’, said Alcohol Concern’s director of
campaigns, Emily Robinson. The charity estimated that
just one in sixteen people with an alcohol problem
received specialist help, as ‘there is just not enough
treatment available’, she said.
Meanwhile, a report from the National Confidential
Enquiry into Patient Outcome, and Death has concluded
that patients with alcohol-related liver disease are being
failed by some hospitals.
Units: a review of patients who
died with alcohol-related liver disease
calls for all
patients presenting to hospital to be screened for alcohol
misuse, and all those presenting to acute services with a
history of potentially harmful drinking referred to alcohol
support services for ‘a comprehensive physical and
mental assessment’, with the results sent to their GP. It
also recommends that a consultant-led multidisciplinary
alcohol care team be established in every acute hospital.
‘The first thing I found surprising was how many of
these extremely ill people were admitted under doctors
who claimed no specialist knowledge of their disease,
and how many of them were not then seen by an
appropriate specialist within a reasonable period,’ said
NCEPOD chair Bertie Leigh.
‘As well as raising standards of care for these
patients, we need to make sure we can intervene earlier
to prevent this shocking loss of young lives,’ said chair of
Alcohol Health Alliance UK, Sir Ian Gilmore.
Statistics on alcohol: England, 2013 at
www.hscic.gov.uk
Units: www.ncepod.org.uk
New psychoactive drugs are proliferating at an
‘unprecedented’ rate and pose ‘unforeseen public health
challenges’, according to the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
2013 world drug report
.
While use of traditional drugs appears to be declining in
parts of the world, there is an ‘alarming’ rise in the use of
new psychoactive substances, it says, with the number
reported to UNODC rising by more than 50 per cent
between 2009 and 2012 and new formulations ‘outpacing
efforts to impose international control’.
Seventy-three new psychoactive substances were
notified for the first time in Europe last year (
DDN
, June,
page 5) and a total of 158 in the US, and for the first time
their number is now greater than the total number of illicit
drugs under international control. ‘What is actually known
today, however, may be just the very tip of the iceberg,’
says the report, as systematic studies on the spread of the
substances do not exist.
‘The emergence of NPS [new psychoactive substances],
increasing non-medical use of prescription drugs and
polydrug use continue to blur the conventional distinction
between users of one or another illicit substances,’ the
report states.
Opiate use has remained stable, says the document,
with heroin use apparently declining in Europe, while the
cocaine market is expanding in South America and in Asia’s
emerging economies. Around 1.6m people who inject drugs
are estimated to be living with HIV, and there are ‘many
regions where evidence-based drug dependence treatment
and care are still not available or accessible’ says the report.
The document was issued on the International Day
against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, and ties in with
UNODC’s 2013 global awareness campaign Make health
your new high in life, not drugs.
However, the
Support
.
Don’t Punish
campaign (
DDN
,
May, page 20, June, page 4, including London, above) sought
to ‘reclaim’ the date with an international day of action that
saw demonstrations in cities across the world to promote
‘reform, alternatives and more human responses’.
Green Party MP for Brighton Caroline Lucas (pictured)
joined activists demonstrating outside the Houses of
Parliament.
‘Governments now need to take an approach based on
evidence
– and one which deals with drugs as a health
issue, not a criminal one,’ she said.
Report at www.unodc.org
CARE CONSULTATION
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is
carrying out a consultation to get feedback
on its plans ‘to help ensure that people
receive high-quality care’. The consultation,
which is open until 12 August, is ‘the next
step towards making the changes needed
to deliver our purpose’, the organisation
says. The regulator’s chair recently stated
that the organisation’s previous board was
‘totally disfunctional’ in the wake of a
number of high-profile scandals.
Consultation at www.cqc.org.uk
EDUCATE AND PREVENT
A new Alcohol and Drug Education and
Prevention Information Service (ADEPIS) has
been launched by Mentor UK, in partnership
with DrugScope and Adfam. As well as a
website with free resources and guidance
for schools and others working with children
and young people, the DfE-funded service is
developing a set of standards and good
practice guidelines.
mentor-adepis.org
BANNING FURY
Two groups of legal highs, ‘NBOMe’ and
‘Benzofury’, will be illegal for a year under a
temporary class drug order (TCDO) while a
decision is made on whether they should be
permanently controlled. ‘This temporary
class drug order will protect the public and
give our independent experts time to prepare
advice,’ said crime prevention minister
Jeremy Brown. ACMD chair Sir Les Iversen
said in a letter to home secretary Theresa
May that the action was ‘appropriate as a
pre-emptive measure in advance of the
summer music festival season’.
TROUBLE TIME
The government’s ‘troubled families’
programme is to be expanded, with £200m
invested ‘to help 400,000 high-risk
families’ and incentives for health, social
service and criminal justice agencies to
work more closely together. The government
was ‘extending the approach to a wider
group of families who, for example, are
struggling with health problems or
parenting, where their children are not in
school or are at risk of being taken into
care,’ said programme head Louise Casey.
TIME TO C REALITY
Governments need to acknowledge that
‘drug policy approaches dominated by strict
law enforcement practices’ perpetuate the
spread of hepatitis C by exacerbating
marginalisation and undermining people’s
access to harm reduction and treatment
services, according to a report from the
Global Commission on Drug Policy.
The negative impact of the war on drugs on
public health: the hidden hepatitis C epidemic
at www.globalcommissionondrugs.org
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| July 2013
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Alcohol dependency prescriptions
up three quarters in a decade
News |
Round-up
NEWS IN BRIEF
UN highlights ‘alarming’ rise in new drugs