Prescription Drugs

(asked on 13th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of unique patients who have been prescribed drugs categorised under the drug groups (a) benzodiazepines including clonazepam, (b) z-drugs, (c) antidepressants and (d) opioids in the each of the last three years.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 27th January 2021

The following table shows the number of unique patients that were prescribed for benzodiazepines including clonazepam, z-drugs, antidepressants and opioids on a National Health Service prescription and dispensed in the community in England in each of the last three calendar years. Data up to and including October 2020 is the latest available data.

Drug Grouping

Calendar Year

Total number of unique identified patients

Percentage (%) of items where the patient has been identified

Benzodiazepines (including clonazepam)

2018

1,559,025

95.26

2019

1,513,747

95.77

2020 to October

1,254,238

96.86

Z-drugs

2018

967,510

96.93

2019

925,384

97.14

2020 to October

794,626

98.01

Antidepressants

2018

7,513,214

97.90

2019

7,800,136

98.12

2020 to October

7,473,047

98.88

Opioid analgesics

2018

3,057,077

95.33

2019

2,998,104

96.93

2020 to October

2,661,874

98.30

Source:

NHS Business Services Authority Information Services ePACT2 system.

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