Mirtazapine
(asked on 13th March 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available to patients where tapering off of Mirtazapine has been unsuccessful and subsequently they find themselves taking a drug that they know is causing them harm.
NHS England encourages integrated care boards (ICBs) to address inappropriate antidepressant prescribing and to consider commissioning services for patients wishing to reduce or stop prescribed medicines that can cause dependence and withdrawal.
In March 2023, NHS England published Optimising personalised care for adults prescribed medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: Framework for action for ICBs and primary care. The framework includes actions, resources and case studies to help systems develop plans that can support people who are taking medicines associated with dependence and withdrawal symptoms. The framework is available at the following link:
ICBs are responsible for planning health services for their local population. This includes consideration of services for patients taking medicines associated with dependence and withdrawal symptoms based on local population needs.
An increasing number of non-pharmacological alternatives have become available on the National Health Service, including significant investment in NHS Talking Therapies for common conditions like anxiety and depression, with 1.26 million referrals starting a course of treatment in 2023/24. There has also been considerable investment in social prescribing, which can help people with mental health problems, and there are now over 3700 full-time equivalent trained social prescribing link workers, and over 2.5 million people have been referred to a social prescribing link worker.
Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines, Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: safe prescribing and withdrawal management for adults, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG215
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is currently leading a project to improve the information supplied with dependency-forming medicines. The project aims to improve risk minimisation measures and better inform and educate healthcare professionals and patients about the risk of dependence, addiction, tolerance and withdrawal related to a wide range of medicines including antidepressants in the United Kingdom.