NHS spends £50m on sleeping pills

A sharp rise in the use of sleeping pills saw NHS spending on the drugs reach nearly £50 million last year, new figures reveal.

Some 15.3 million prescriptions were handed out in 2010/11, compared with 14.5 million in 2007/08, according to NHS figures obtained by the Co-operative Pharmacy.

A Freedom of Information request revealed health trusts spent £49.2 million on the drugs in 2010/11, up from £42 million three years previously — an increase of more than 17 per cent.

The largest number of sleeping pill prescriptions were dispensed in the North-West, which spent more than £8.5 million.

Zoplicone was given to more than 5.2 million patients nationally, making it the most popular sleeping tablet.

About a third of people are thought to have bouts of insomnia, but health chiefs have voiced concerns that frequent use of sleeping pills can lead to psychological dependency.

In a US study of a wide range of drugs used by more than 10,500 people, experts at the Jackson Hole Centre for Preventive Medicine in Wyoming and the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Centre in California found that people prescribed sleeping pills were 4.6 times more likely to die during a two and a half year period than those not on the drugs.