2.1 million Belgians take addictive sleeping pills and tranquilisers
Last year, one in five people in Belgium was prescribed benzodiazepines, addictive sleeping pills and tranquilisers. Numbers have fallen significantly in four years, yet use remains high, De Standaard wrote on Monday based on new data from IQVIA, a company that provides analysis, technology and services for the health sector.
Benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, Valium and Temesta, are prescription drugs that help people relax or fall asleep. Their side effects can include dizziness, memory problems and reduced alertness. Due to the addictive nature of these pills, tolerance develops after one or two weeks, causing difficulty with withdrawing.
Decrease in use
Last year, 385 million benzodiazepines were sold, a decrease of about 15.3 per cent compared to 455 million in 2019. The number of users decreased even faster in the same period. In 2019, 2.6 million people took the drugs, compared to 2.1 million last year, a fall of 17.4 per cent.
“Yet we remain at the top in Europe in terms of benzo use,” says Ellen Van Leeuwen, general practitioner and psychotropic drug researcher at UGent. “The decrease is encouraging, although it is also striking that long-term use remains quite stable. It shows that reducing psychotropic drugs is a long-term effort. But we are on the right track, and we must continue.”
"The decrease is encouraging, although it is also striking that long-term use remains quite stable"
Studies have shown that in Belgium, people aged 75 or older are the main users, while the number of under-15s using prescription sleep aids has halved. According to IQVIA, the decline is mainly due to fewer new patients being prescribed benzodiazepines. This trend has been clearly visible in the figures since 2019.
At the beginning of last year, the government launched a pilot project to phase out benzodiazepine use, with pharmacists and doctors giving patients increasingly smaller doses over a programme lasting 50 to 360 days. Nearly 5,000 people are now following such a regime.
© PHOTO IMAGEBROKER
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