How is it taking so long to help people hooked on their prescription medicines? Thousands are addicted to drugs given to them by their doctors. But promises of support still haven't been met.

[Alex3]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10612333/How-taking-long-help-people-hooked-prescription-medicines.html

 

Hi all,

 

Thought I'd highlight this UK article that emerged yesterday.

 

The link to the DM article states something along the lines of impending changes to the guidelines so things are at least ostensibly changing and being brought to the forefront rather than us being left as an afterthought.

 

This hell is compounded when your symptoms are invalidated. Helps to communicate/convey/articulate with family and colleagues too.

[ChessieCat]

Would someone be able/willing to do a summary/key points of this article please?

[Alex3]

'The solution is slow tapering — a carefully controlled, monitored reduction in frequency and dosage of a drug,' Luke, co-founder of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Prescribed Drug Dependence, told Good Health.

 

...

 

And now campaigners fear the opportunity to address this problem, with the publication next month of new guidance on withdrawal, is about be squandered.

 

...

 

One of PHE's key recommendations was new guidance for doctors on how to safely prescribe and wean patients off these drugs, to be issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The guidance is due to be published within weeks.

 

...

 

As a co-founder of the APPG, with personal experience of the dangers of prescription-drug dependency, Luke Montagu had gladly accepted an invitation to sit on the NICE committee.

But as he revealed in the Mail, he resigned last June because he believed his fellow committee members were turning a blind eye to the benefits of 'hyperbolic tapering' — a successful technique of weaning patients off drugs by reducing each dose by a small percentage of the previous one, rather than by the same fixed amount every time, which is the approach typically offered to patients at present (if they are given any advice at all).

 

...

 

Londoner Lucy Fernandes, who tried by herself and failed to come off drugs she had been prescribed for anxiety, succeeded only when she finally stumbled upon the REST (Recovery Experience Sleeping Tablets and Tranquillisers) service at mental health charity Mind in Camden — one of the few services in the UK dedicated to guiding patients through tapering.

'Before that I'd tried going cold turkey but they said, 'Actually you need to do this really, really slowly.' They didn't do it in a didactic way. It was a community. I could speak to lots of others who'd had a similar experience and gained understanding and support from that.'

 

...

 

As Luke Montagu told Good Health last week, 'the current draft of this guidance leaves out critical information on the speed of the taper. It just says 'slow'.

'But when people read the word 'slow', they may think that means tapering off a medication over a couple of weeks. In fact, depending on various factors, 'slow' can actually mean many months or a year or even more.'

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by ChessieCat
changed multiple asterisks with ellipses

[Alex3]

Having a re-read, they're going to (hopefully) at least acknowledge withdrawal, but whether they'll promote/encourage tapering... that's another question

[Alex3]

Thought I'd add James Moore's article here too:

 

https://www.madintheuk.com/2021/12/tapering-antidepressants-slow-best-strategy/

 

It's not acceptable to reach this cross roads points and STILL there isn't sufficient guidance/training/research to help patients manage tapering.

[Shep]

Great articles, @Alex3Thanks for posting them and adding key points and thoughts about them. 

[NardilTime]

There is absolutely nothing more destructive than having a doctor tell you that your withdrawal symptoms are not real. It happened to me and I suffered severe side effects for a decade before finally discarding their advice and coming off the drugs on my own. I’m recovering from withdrawal and eventually I’m confident I’ll be symptom free, but considering all the suffering I have endured and all the life that has been lost, I don’t think I’ll ever be a complete person again. 

[Alex3]

@NardilTime Experiencing these symptoms during lockdown combined with a dismissal of withdrawal is a torturous and despairing combination.

 

Great to hear you're at 0. Are you going through windows and waves?

 

I've consigned myself to starting the process over the next month or so and going very, very slowly. A gruelling battle

[NardilTime]

Yes I am going through windows and waves. I’m over six months out and I’m happy to say that the waves are decreasing in severity and the windows are increasing in how good they are. It’s a brutal struggle but there is no doubt that I am doing much better without the drugs.