According to the latest report on prescription drugs by Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), UK there has been a whopping 50 per cent increase in the number of items prescribed to people in the UK over the course of last decade.
The report, which presents a summary of prescriptions dispensed in the community by community pharmacists, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors in England, notes that more than 1.06 billion items were prescribed in 2014 marking a 3.3 per cent increase over the previous year and 55.2 per cent increase over 2004. The number of items prescribed in 2004 were 378.5 million.
The report notes that the overall Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) of prescriptions in 2014 however stood at £8.85 billion in 2014 registering a 9.6 per cent increase over 2004.
Some of the more concerning figures relate to prescription of antidepressant. The report notes that in the year 2014 a whopping 57.1 million antidepressant medicines were dispensed which is a nearly 100 per cent increase (97.1 per cent) from 29.0 million in 2004.
The report also note that there has been a 25 per cent increase in prescriptions for erectile dysfunction drugs including Viagra, while the costs on the availability of the generic versions of the drug has come down by 85.9 per cent. Year 2014 saw a total of 1.7 million prescriptions for sildenafil, which is sold as Viagra and under other trade names. This accounts for 21 per cent increase over 2013. A decade ago, the number was just one million.
The report also notes that of all prescription items dispensed 89.9 per cent (957.1 million), were dispensed free of charge out of which three in five prescriptions were for patients aged 60 and over which, accounted for 51.2 per cent (£4.53 billion) of the total net ingredient cost for all prescriptions. Further, one in 20 prescriptions were for patients aged under 16 or 16-18 and in full-time education. This age group accounted for 6.9 per cent (£612.1 million) of the total ingredient cost of all prescriptions.
A medicine that helps reduce the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes – Atorvastatin – saw the greatest increase in the number of items dispensed with 4.0 million more items since 2013.
Factors influencing prescribing
The report points out a number of factors which might influence the number of prescriptions dispensed within a
year, including
- the size of the population;
- the age structure of the population, notably the proportion of the those aged 60 and over, who generally receive more prescriptions than the younger age groups;
- improvements in diagnosis, leading to earlier recognition of conditions and earlier treatment with medicines;
- development of new medicines for conditions with limited treatment options;
- development of more medicines to treat common conditions;
- increased prevalence of some long term conditions, for example, diabetes;
- shifts in prescribing practice in response to national policy, and new guidance and evidence; and
- increased prescribing for prevention or reducing risk of serious events, e.g. use of lipidlowering drugs to reduce risk of stroke or heart attack.
