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<\/p>\nDoctors have been warned about the dangers of prescribing a whole class of painkillers after they were linked to Scotland\u2019s drugs-death crisis.<\/p>\n
Scientists have long been worried that medicines such as pregabalin \u2014 dubbed the \u201cnew Valium\u201d or even \u201cBud\u201d, like the beer \u2014 are finding their way on to the black market across the UK.<\/p>\n
Now they are warning that the drug and its sister product gabapentin are being prescribed by Scottish doctors \u201coff label\u201d for conditions they were never supposed to help \u2014 and in ever-increasing quantities.<\/p>\n
Known collectively as gabapentinoids, the two products were originally licensed for use to treat the kind of nerve pain which can be caused by conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes and shingles. Pregabalin can also be prescribed for anxiety.<\/p>\n
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Gabapentin is usually prescribed for nerve pain caused by epilepsy, diabetes and shingles<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
However, a study has found that these medicines were implicated in nearly two out of five drugs deaths in Tayside, usually when used together with a narcotic. More than three quarters of victims had got the drugs through \u201cdiversion\u201d \u2014 meaning they were passed on or sold by others \u2014 rather than directly by prescription.<\/p>\n
The research, published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, documented a huge rise in the number of scripts written for the drugs in Scotland. Pregabalin, introduced in 2004, went from just over 27,000 prescriptions in 2006 to 966,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n
Professor Blair Smith, chair of Population Health Sciences at the University of Dundee\u2019s School of Medicine and an expert in pain, said: \u201cGabapentin and pregabalin are first-line treatments for neuropathic pain and there is evidence to support that. However, the evidence may not be there for any unlicensed use. It is important we should go on the evidence because these drugs have side effects and dangers attached to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne hypothesis for the increase is the pressure on GPs to prescribe less opioids, as these have been heavily implicated in drugs deaths. There may also be diversion of prescription drugs into street drugs and for recreational use and sold on that basis.\u201d<\/p>\n