Petition calling for tapering strips in the UK

[Faure]

Please consider signing the petition calling for tapering strips on the NHS in the UK.

https://www.change.org/p/provide-tapering-strips-to-help-people-withdraw-from-antidepressant-and-antipsychotic-drugs

 

Blurb:

 

Provide Tapering Strips through the NHS to help users who want to stop taking prescription drugs for anxiety & depression (antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines and opioids).

 

Psychotropic prescription drugs can be very difficult for some people to stop taking because they can lead to dependence. Some users experience difficulties stopping or reducing their drugs even with the support of doctors and psychiatrists. Research indicates that around 50% of users will experience significant withdrawal effects, yet this is little recognised by doctors. Recently, the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists has accepted this is a problem with antidepressant drugs.

 

Because stopping or reducing these drugs is so difficult, many people feel trapped into taking these tablets for many years, giving them side effects and costing the NHS money in providing unnecessary prescriptions. In 2018 the NHS spent £202 million just on antidepressants.

 

Many of these drugs cause a physical dependence and the best way to avoid any unpleasant symptoms is to reduce the dosage slowly over an extended period (sometimes many months or even years). This approach is widely recommended yet remains practically impossible for most people.

 

Providing a safe method by which people can gradually reduce their psychoactive prescription medications helps patients and helps doctors too.

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by ChessieCat
added link

[92sharks]

@FaureI clicked on the initial "this" in your first sentence. It cycled back to your post. I was able to sign the petition from the sentence in your signature "Important petition calling for tapering strips in the UK"-please sign.   Thank you for posting this, Faure!

[Faure]

Oh, @92sharks that’s a shame my link didn’t work. In case anyone else wants to sign it here it is again:

 

https://www.change.org/p/provide-tapering-strips-to-help-people-withdraw-from-antidepressant-and-antipsychotic-drugs

[ChessieCat]

@Faure  I've added the link to the petition to the first post.

[innocent21]

The british government rejects all petitions hosted on third party websites in favour of their own internal first party parliamentary government petition website. Make your petition there instead.

[Faure]

On 10/24/2021 at 7:58 AM, innocent21 said:

The british government rejects all petitions hosted on third party websites in favour of their own internal first party parliamentary government petition website. Make your petition there instead.

That’s a shame. It’s not my petition. Can’t easily see contact details of the person; whose petition is it 😌

[ChessieCat]

 

@Faure  @innocent21

 

Just below the big turquoise Let's Talk Withdrawal box:

 

James Moore started this petition to Matt Hancock (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care)

 

EDITED to add:  James Moore is a member of SA:

 

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/profile/8072-jamesmoore/

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by ChessieCat

[Faure]

On 10/24/2021 at 7:58 AM, innocent21 said:

The british government rejects all petitions hosted on third party websites in favour of their own internal first party parliamentary government petition website. Make your petition there instead.

@JamesMoore - I have signed your petition and linked to it my signature but have you seen what innocent21 has said about petitions on change.org?

[JamesMoore]

On 10/24/2021 at 7:58 AM, innocent21 said:

The british government rejects all petitions hosted on third party websites in favour of their own internal first party parliamentary government petition website. Make your petition there instead.

 

Hi innocent21, thank you for your message and for your interest, can I first apologise for taking so long to reply. You are correct that the UK Government will look at petitions on their own service which get more than 10K signatures but I know for a fact that our petition would not get debated. Similar direct efforts have received the response that "Public Health England has already reviewed the evidence" which is true but of course they stopped short of making the kind of recommendations that we think are appropriate in terms of dedicated help and support and training for prescribers. When I first set the petition up, I was also interested to know 'is this just a UK/US issue or is it wider?'. When I last checked, 104 countries were represented on the Change petition which is useful information in itself.

 

As you may know, I did submit the petition to our then Secretary of State for Health (Matt Hancock). He never replied and later claimed his department never received the letter. Wendy Burn, then President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, did respond to myself and Matt Hancock and we met but this was in Feb 2020 just as the pandemic was kicking off. I will give some thought to starting the petition off again but it has proved useful as evidence in support of ongoing work in the UK even though it was not on the Government's own portal. Thanks again for taking an interest and for your suggestion. All the best.