Post by Admin on Jan 8, 2024 20:00:50 GMT
UK's most dangerous prescription drug prescribed to 37,000 linked to 7,000 deaths
www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/uk-s-most-dangerous-prescription-drug-prescribed-to-37-000-linked-to-7-000-deaths/ar-AA1mEnIF
Britain’s most dangerous prescription drug has been linked to 7,000 deaths since being approved. Clozapine — dubbed Britain’s “most dangerous” prescription drug — has been licensed to treat schizophrenia on the NHS and in the UK since 1990.
Analysis by The Times found the drug is linked to almost eight times as many reported deaths as any other high-risk medicine. It is prescribed for around 37,000 Brits a year.
William Northcott died at the age of 39 from a heart attack at a mental health care home after having taken the drug for years. His sister Kate Northcott Spall told the paper: “William spent two years with arrows all over him pointin
“He’d been an inpatient, he had a community mental health team, he was in residential care with nurses. I truly believed they were caring for him.” An interim death certificate gave William's cause of death as "fatal arrhythmia most likely due to prescription drug toxicity".
Nikki Holmes, a consultant mental health pharmacist, said “every single death from clozapine is an absolute tragedy”. A spokesperson for Living with Schizophrenia said the drug has a “complex side-effect profile which requires extremely diligent management”.
They said: “Any adverse side-effects must always be weighed against the risk of not intervening. In this case that would be the risk of mortal danger arising from uncontrolled psychotic thinking." The NHS says it follows MHRA guidance.
The MHRA said it is “one of the most tightly monitored medicines on the UK market” and kept under “close review”. Seek advice from cardiologist if tachycardia occurs in presence of chest pain, heart failure or overt signs of myocarditis, the NHS explains in a brochure on the drug.
Clozapine should be stopped and Psychiatrist contacted for advice, the NHS goes on to add. Clozapine is an antipsychotic used in the treatment of schizophrenia when other antipsychotics have notworked. It may also be used for psychotic disorders occurring in Parkinson's disease when standardtreatment has failed.
www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/uk-s-most-dangerous-prescription-drug-prescribed-to-37-000-linked-to-7-000-deaths/ar-AA1mEnIF
Britain’s most dangerous prescription drug has been linked to 7,000 deaths since being approved. Clozapine — dubbed Britain’s “most dangerous” prescription drug — has been licensed to treat schizophrenia on the NHS and in the UK since 1990.
Analysis by The Times found the drug is linked to almost eight times as many reported deaths as any other high-risk medicine. It is prescribed for around 37,000 Brits a year.
William Northcott died at the age of 39 from a heart attack at a mental health care home after having taken the drug for years. His sister Kate Northcott Spall told the paper: “William spent two years with arrows all over him pointin
“He’d been an inpatient, he had a community mental health team, he was in residential care with nurses. I truly believed they were caring for him.” An interim death certificate gave William's cause of death as "fatal arrhythmia most likely due to prescription drug toxicity".
Nikki Holmes, a consultant mental health pharmacist, said “every single death from clozapine is an absolute tragedy”. A spokesperson for Living with Schizophrenia said the drug has a “complex side-effect profile which requires extremely diligent management”.
They said: “Any adverse side-effects must always be weighed against the risk of not intervening. In this case that would be the risk of mortal danger arising from uncontrolled psychotic thinking." The NHS says it follows MHRA guidance.
The MHRA said it is “one of the most tightly monitored medicines on the UK market” and kept under “close review”. Seek advice from cardiologist if tachycardia occurs in presence of chest pain, heart failure or overt signs of myocarditis, the NHS explains in a brochure on the drug.
Clozapine should be stopped and Psychiatrist contacted for advice, the NHS goes on to add. Clozapine is an antipsychotic used in the treatment of schizophrenia when other antipsychotics have notworked. It may also be used for psychotic disorders occurring in Parkinson's disease when standardtreatment has failed.