Are addiction clinics the answer for those hooked on prescription pills?

According to last month’s review by Public Health England, in the past year 11.5million patients were given at least one prescription for opioid painkillers, antidepressants, sleeping pills or tranquillisers – which can be addictive. PHE recommended new guidelines for doctors, a 24-hour advice helpline. But one approach is specialist drug treatment centres. Developed initially for people addicted to illegal drugs, these can be ‘very successful’ – but such centres has decreased in the past decade. This has been a disaster, according to Dr Cathy Stannard of NHS Gloucestershire Care Commissioning Group.