Written question asked by Cat Smith (Labour) on Wednesday, 13 January 2021, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 January 2021. It was answered by Jo Churchill (Conservative) on Wednesday, 27 January 2021 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Prescription Drugs

Question: 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.

Answer

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.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 137239
Session: 2019-21
Related items: Prescription Drugs
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Subjects: Prescription drugs Tranquillisers Opioids Antidepressants Benzodiazepines
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk

Prescription Drugs

Secondary information

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