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.