Around 10 million people in the UK may have put themselves at risk of developing a dependency or addiction to codeine-based painkillers, a survey carried out for ITV Tonight has uncovered.
There are widespread concerns amongst medical professionals about a hidden ‘over the counter’ dependency crisis in the UK – medicines that can form habits but are available to purchase without a prescription, including painkillers, sleeping aids and nasal sprays.
Painkillers containing a combination of codeine and either ibuprofen or paracetamol are available to buy at pharmacies without a prescription, unlike more than 25 other countries including Australia, where the rules changed in 2018 to reduce the risk of abuse and addiction.
The current guidance on codeine-based painkillers, which includes well-known brands like Nurofen Plus and Solpadeine, is that they should be used for a maximum of three days continuously.
According to an ITV Tonight survey carried out by Savanta of more than 2,000 people across the UK, almost one in five people who have taken codeine-based painkillers did so for more than ten days in a row, while one in six took them for up to nine days.
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