18th June 2004
Doctor's Mission Offers Lifeline
to Oldham Addicts
Dr Rakesh Kohli
A ROYTON GP is leading a campaign to slash the number of people helplessly addicted to controversial tranquillisers or anti-anxiety pills. Dr Rakesh Kohli is the driving force behind a new scheme to offer all long-term benzodiazepine users in Oldham West an escape from their dependence on the drugs.
As a member of Oldham West Primary Care Group – covering Failsworth, Glodwick, Werneth, Crompton, Moorside and parts of Chadderton and Royton – Dr Kohli has helped to set up a training course for GPs practising in those areas, in a bid to help them wean their patients off their tablets.
Patients are being invited into their GP's surgery and offered assistance in stopping the drugs – once and for all. It is known that thousands of people living in Oldham regularly take benzodiazepine drugs. It is impossible to say how many addicts there are as no tally is kept on the number of individual users.
However, in February this year GPs in Oldham West issued 3,900 benzodiazepine prescriptions, while the figure for Oldham East was 3,200. Dr Kohli says the success of the scheme to fight addiction, relies heavily on patients actually wanting to stop taking them.
Urging regular users to go to their GP and ask for help to stop, he said: "These drugs are highly addictive and people just can't stop taking them overnight. It will be a slow process to reduce them because of the effects, and if people aren't motivated to come forward and help themselves, we can't solve the problem. There are a lot of elderly people taking benzodiazepines which were originally prescribed for sleeping problems and anxiety. When taken long-term they can cause confusion and loss of balance, and a lot of doctors now will not prescribe them at all. There are alternative drugs we can use, and if benzodiazepines are prescribed it should be only for a very short term – for two to four weeks."
West Pennine Health Authority, which covers Oldham, Tameside and Glossop, currently has the fifth highest number of prescriptions for benzodiazepines in the country. And it was those figures that prompted Dr Kohli into action. "I looked at them and realised something had to be done," he said.
"On further scrutiny, checking the number of prescriptions issued was perhaps not the best way of measuring the problem as comparisons were difficult to make. Most such prescriptions are for a month's supply but in areas like Oldham, where doctors treat a high number of drug addicts, we issue prescriptions weekly and sometimes even daily to make sure patients are taking them correctly," he explained.
Doctors are being urged to take extra care when prescribing the drugs – and to offer help to those who want to kick the habit. Few, if any, GPs now prescribe them long-term for new patients.
Dr Jane Rossini, Consultant in Public Health Medicine for West Pennine Health Authority, said the high number of prescriptions for the drugs in West Pennine came as no surprise. She said: "The level of benzodiazepine prescriptions is high in Oldham, but I suspect many patients started taking them at a time when perhaps we didn't know as much about benzodiazepines as we do now. A lot would have been stress-related – and you would expect stress to be a problem in a town like Oldham where there are high levels of deprivation and unemployment."
As far as I know now - this is happening all over the country.
to Oldham Addicts
Dr Rakesh Kohli
A ROYTON GP is leading a campaign to slash the number of people helplessly addicted to controversial tranquillisers or anti-anxiety pills. Dr Rakesh Kohli is the driving force behind a new scheme to offer all long-term benzodiazepine users in Oldham West an escape from their dependence on the drugs.
As a member of Oldham West Primary Care Group – covering Failsworth, Glodwick, Werneth, Crompton, Moorside and parts of Chadderton and Royton – Dr Kohli has helped to set up a training course for GPs practising in those areas, in a bid to help them wean their patients off their tablets.
Patients are being invited into their GP's surgery and offered assistance in stopping the drugs – once and for all. It is known that thousands of people living in Oldham regularly take benzodiazepine drugs. It is impossible to say how many addicts there are as no tally is kept on the number of individual users.
However, in February this year GPs in Oldham West issued 3,900 benzodiazepine prescriptions, while the figure for Oldham East was 3,200. Dr Kohli says the success of the scheme to fight addiction, relies heavily on patients actually wanting to stop taking them.
Urging regular users to go to their GP and ask for help to stop, he said: "These drugs are highly addictive and people just can't stop taking them overnight. It will be a slow process to reduce them because of the effects, and if people aren't motivated to come forward and help themselves, we can't solve the problem. There are a lot of elderly people taking benzodiazepines which were originally prescribed for sleeping problems and anxiety. When taken long-term they can cause confusion and loss of balance, and a lot of doctors now will not prescribe them at all. There are alternative drugs we can use, and if benzodiazepines are prescribed it should be only for a very short term – for two to four weeks."
West Pennine Health Authority, which covers Oldham, Tameside and Glossop, currently has the fifth highest number of prescriptions for benzodiazepines in the country. And it was those figures that prompted Dr Kohli into action. "I looked at them and realised something had to be done," he said.
"On further scrutiny, checking the number of prescriptions issued was perhaps not the best way of measuring the problem as comparisons were difficult to make. Most such prescriptions are for a month's supply but in areas like Oldham, where doctors treat a high number of drug addicts, we issue prescriptions weekly and sometimes even daily to make sure patients are taking them correctly," he explained.
Doctors are being urged to take extra care when prescribing the drugs – and to offer help to those who want to kick the habit. Few, if any, GPs now prescribe them long-term for new patients.
Dr Jane Rossini, Consultant in Public Health Medicine for West Pennine Health Authority, said the high number of prescriptions for the drugs in West Pennine came as no surprise. She said: "The level of benzodiazepine prescriptions is high in Oldham, but I suspect many patients started taking them at a time when perhaps we didn't know as much about benzodiazepines as we do now. A lot would have been stress-related – and you would expect stress to be a problem in a town like Oldham where there are high levels of deprivation and unemployment."
As far as I know now - this is happening all over the country.