---

Analgesics: Prescriptions

Answer

The Prescription Cost Analysis data release gives items and quantities of each medicine dispensed in the community in England. The following table shows the total number of items dispensed for analgesics in England, regardless of where prescribed, as well as the unique number of patients that were dispensed medicines listed in British National Formulary (BNF) Section 4.7 Analgesics, from December 2023 to November 2024:

Month and year	Total number of items	Unique identified patients
December 2023	5,000,000	3,100,000
January 2024	5,200,000	3,200,000
February 2024	4,800,000	3,100,000
March 2024	4,900,000	3,100,000
April 2024	5,100,000	3,200,000
May 2024	5,200,000	3,200,000
June 2024	4,800,000	3,100,000
July 2024	5,200,000	3,200,000
August 2024	5,000,000	3,100,000
September 2024	4,900,000	3,100,000
October 2024	5,200,000	3,200,000
November 2024	5,000,000	3,200,000
Total	60,400,000	7,500,000

For further information, BNF 4.7 includes:

- non-opioid analgesics and compound preparations;

- opioid analgesics;

- neuropathic pain medicines; and

- antimigraine medicines.

No data has been captured relating to the clinical indication a prescription is intended for. Some of these products can be used for a variety of clinical indications and therefore the figures provided may include items that were prescribed for a different condition, rather than for pain relief.

It is important to note that this data does not capture medicines classified elsewhere within the BNF, which are primarily used for other reasons, but may also be used for analgesic purposes. This includes, for example, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which feature in 10.1 ‘Drugs used in rheumatic diseases and gout’, and antidepressants, used off-label in chronic primary pain, which feature in 4.3 ‘Antidepressant drugs’.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

28925

Session

2024-26

Subjects

Prescriptions Analgesics

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk