Pregabalin: Bristol’s ‘emerging’ prescription drug problem
“This drug leaves you stuck between a rock and a hard place, we need it to keep us going, but I do have the side effects.”
Jill Marriner, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), has been taking prescription drugs pregabalin and gabapentin since 2010. After accidentally going cold turkey for just a day, she vowed never to do it again. “It was hell,” she says.
Pregabalin and gabapentin are prescribed for anxiety, nerve pain and epilepsy, but their addictive potential as well as a growing black market have prompted the government to propose reclassifying them as class C drugs — like ketamine or other tranquilizers.
They are also under the remit of a wider government investigation launched last week into addiction to prescription drugs. The Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and the British Medical Association (BMA) have both called for the control of the substances.
Original source - https://thebristolcable.org/2018/01/pregabalin-gabapentin-prescription-drugs-problem/
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Alcohol related deaths in Bristol at record high
Alcohol related deaths in Bristol are at their highest since records began, new health statistics have revealed.
The figures, from Public Health England, show alcohol deaths across the city rose again in 2018 and are at their highest level ever.
Analysis of the new data by addiction treatment firm UKAT reveals 197 people died last year as a direct result of alcohol abuse, a figure which has
In the last seven years, alcohol related deaths in the city have risen from 177 in 2011 to 197 in 2018, a 12% rise – a trend experts at UKAT say is in a ‘wrong and worrying direction’.
The figures equate to 56.8 deaths from alcohol related conditions per 100,000 people in Bristol, a rate significantly higher than the 2018 average for the whole South West region- 45.6 deaths per 100,000- and is higher than for the whole of England, which is 46.5.
Original source - https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/alcohol-related-deaths-bristol-record-3656098
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