The Tranquilizer Trap

NAMI SCC Website

The Tranquilizer Trap
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This coming Sunday, BBC News Panorama will broadcast, in live stream, a very important show on the mis-prescription of tranquilizers and the negative effects of these drugs which disable millions of people world wide. Finally this massive health scandal is about to be given world wide attention. If you get the chance please tune into the web site below or monitor BBC1 at 2215 BST:
(Click here to go to the web site now)

The Tranquilizer Trap
Sunday May 13, 2001

Shelley Jofre investigates the specter of tranquillizer dependency, and questions why, despite strict guidelines on their prescription, people in Britain are still prescribed them long-term.
Seventeen and a half million benzodiazepine tranquillizer prescriptions were issued by GPs in 1999 and it is estimated that around one million patients are now hooked on the drugs.

Panorama reveals that most patients are on repeat prescriptions and that many of them have been prescribed them for years rather than the recommended 4-week maximum. The drugs used in the short-term are beneficial for a range of symptoms. But it is widely accepted that if these drugs are prescribed beyond the 4-week maximum, they can in fact be harmful to health. This was the warning that was given to the nation's GP's by the government thirteen years ago - not to prescribe these drugs, including Valium and Mogadon, for more than four weeks, and not to provide them on repeat prescriptions.

Shelley Jofre asks why GPs and psychiatrists have routinely ignored warnings about side effects and addiction. Benzodiazepines are being prescribed to all ages, from teenagers to elderly patients, across the UK. But there is little or no provision for those who want to come off the drugs.

Watch The Tranquillizer Trap on BBC1 at 2215 BST Sunday 13 May or via a live stream on this site.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/panorama/newsid_1312000/1312741.stm
Production Team:
Reporter Shelley Jofre
Producer Murdoch Rodgers
Assistant Producers Tom Anstiss & Rob Cole

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