Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) hospital admissions and (b) deaths related to (i) benzodiazepines, (ii) z drugs and (ii) antidepressants there were in the last year.
In 2016-17, the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database showed the number of finished admission episodes with a primary or secondary diagnosis of benzodiazepines and antidepressants as follows:
Benzodiazepines | 7,313 |
Z drugs (Zopiclone / Zolpidem) | not available |
Antidepressants | 16,108 |
Similar information on the number of admissions for Z drugs cannot be extracted from the HES database. The classification of admissions includes, but is not limited to, those relating to the use of Z drugs and therefore these instances cannot be isolated.
In 2016, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the following information for drug related deaths:
Benzodiazepines | 406 |
Z drugs | 94 |
Antidepressants | 460 |
This information was published by the ONS on 2 August 2017 and is available online at: