Prevention Awareness
We believe Prevention Awareness of the harms of prescription drug dependence is key to PostScript360’s purpose. By aiming to reduce further health and social problems we promote awareness of benzodiazepines, hypnotics drugs called Z-drugs as well other similar drugs. We also educate our clients about the dangers of taking these drugs longer than 4 weeks or prolonged use of other similar drugs. We alert people of unregistered pharmacies online that look genuine but are selling out of date or fake medication to vulnerable people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 50% of the drugs for sale on the internet are fake even though the online pharmacies might look legitimate. Michael Deats from WHO’s Safety and Vigilance team is quoted as saying that adverse reactions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fake and substandard drugs. Of course, every so often there are the horror stories of deaths or serious illnesses from contaminated counterfeits but most of the products are not poisonous. They either contain little or no active ingredient and the effects can be devastating but can easily go unnoticed. (The Lancet shorturl.at/buCS2).
PostScript360 are not saying ban Benzodiazepines
When a person is acute with their illness they need respite to have a sense of calm and for the health professional to find the correct treatment/therapy for them. However, benzodiazepines are not a treatment; prolonged use makes the person’s condition worse. If benzodiazepines are prescribed for several months the health professional must have an exit strategy for their patient to taper off their medication correctly. Sadly this doesn’t happen enough.
Short-term use of benzodiazepines and Z drugs can easily turn into long-term use thereby causing problems which lead to tolerance and dependency. Benzodiazepines and other similar drugs have many adverse effects including cognitive disturbance and decline, behavioural problems, Accident & Emergency visits, accidents, suicide, and drug-related mortality.
We promote best practice and follow Ashton Manual and NICE guidelines of medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms, safe prescribing, and withdrawal management for adults. Primary health care is an important field for efforts to reduce access to benzodiazepines,to lower the number of new users and users at risk of dependency.
PostScript360 promotes prevention awareness to health professionals and the general public through conferences, knowledge sharing, campaigns, resources, and social media.
