£10bn cost of a society 'addicted to pill-popping'

The cost of drugs handed out by GPs over the past five years has jumped by 27 per cent, breaking the £10billion barrier.

Experts claim growing demand for a "pill for every ill" and poor prescribing by doctors and nurses is to blame for the increase.

There is also criticism of drug companies which are accused of marketing their medicines ever more aggressively to GPs.

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Family doctors prescribed 918million medicines last year compared with 721million five years ago. That is an average of 81 prescriptions per GP every day compared to 64 five years ago.

Every week more than 730,000 prescriptions for anti-depressants are handed out and 870,000 antibiotics.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said it was outrageous there had been such a sharp rise in anti-depressant prescriptions while patients were denied access to antiblindness drugs because of rationing.

"The NHS is not a bottomless pit," he said. "There are going to have to be some very tough decisions about where we prioritise funding.

"This is a very disturbing trend and there is a danger that we end up in a society where we think everything can be resolved by the latest pharmaceutical development. And there is a danger that we stop taking responsibility for our own lives."

The British Medical Association said recently the rising drugs bill meant NHS care - such as obesity operations and IVF treatment - may have to be rationed in the future.

It warned too many GPs were handing out weightloss pills rather than ensuring patients looked after their own diet and level of exercise.

Mental health experts are also concerned GPs are prescribing antidepressants when a course of counselling would be more appropriate.

This month a senior psychiatrist criticised the medicalisation of depression, saying GPs were handing out anti-depressants to patients who were simply "down in the dumps".

MP Richard Taylor, a GP, said: "People now think it is better to take a pill than do something themselves about their own health.

"For example people want obesity drugs, when the basic thing about obesity is to take exercise and eat only what you need."

However, Professor Mayur Lakhani, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said more drugs were being prescribed because there were clinical benefits. "Lives are being saved," he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "More drugs are being prescribed due to advances in medical technology, which means we can treat more conditions."