In the two decades I have been a GP, the NHS has instructed us to tell patients the same thing about sleeping tablets: don’t take them.
These drugs, such as benzodiazepines (or benzos as they are often called), have been shown to be highly addictive. Such is the concern that earlier this year health chiefs issued another strong warning to family doctors urging them to stop prescribing sleeping pills immediately.
Which is why it is all the more shocking that, according to official data, 14,000 sleeping pill prescriptions are still handed out on the NHS every day. How is this possible?
The answer
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