NHS data has shown a further fall in prescribing costs for dependency-forming medicines.
A quarterly update from the NHS Business Services Authority showed that while there had been little change in the numbers of items prescribed, costs of the drugs, which include opioid pain medicine, benzodiazepines and gabapentinoids, fell by £2m in October to December 2024.
The cost of dependency-forming medicines prescribed was £91.1m – a 2.6% decrease from the £93.5m reported for July to September 2024.
It is part of an ongoing downward trend in the amount the NHS spends on potentially addictive medicines in England, with a fall of 52% between 2015/16 and 2023/24.
The figures show opioid drugs are the most prescribed dependency-forming medicines with 9.86 million items at a cost of £67.3m.
Overall, there were 4.39 million identified patients that were prescribed dependency-forming medicines, a 0.16% decrease from 4.40 million identified patients in the previous quarter, the report said.
Female patients aged 60 to 64 remain the most common group prescribed these medicines which also include Z-drugs but not antidepressants, with 288,000 identified patients.
But health inequalities in their use persist with 78.5% more patients in the most deprived areas prescribed dependency-forming medicines than those in the least deprived.
NHSBSA has been tracking the use of dependency-forming medicines in primary care since a review by Public Health England in 2019 found that one in four adults were prescribed potentially addictive medications.
In 2023, NHS England said GPs should offer alternatives including psychotherapy, sleep clinics and social activities or clubs before prescribing addictive painkillers or antidepressants.
At the time figures showed GPs and pharmacists had already cut opioid prescriptions by 450,000 in under four years, preventing 2,100 incidents of patient harm.
A GP-led trial in the North East and Midlands reported in June that a programme of dose tapering, group meetings and alternative therapies to help people manage their pain can help one in five people quit opioid prescriptions in a year.
NICE guidance on safe prescribing and withdrawal management for addictive drugs concluded that antidepressants were not ‘dependence-forming’ drugs, although they can cause withdrawal symptoms.
Research published in November showed that more than three quarters of new non-cancer pain opioids prescribed by UK GPs are for musculoskeletal conditions, despite limited evidence of efficacy.
