1. TERAPROOF:User:sambolandDate:04/08/2011Time:23:01:09Edition:05/08/2011ExaminerLiveXX0508Page: 1Zone:XX1
05.08.11
IRISH EXAMINER
Recommended retail
price in Ireland €1.85
XX1 - V1
www.irishexaminer.com No. 58,800Friday, August 5, 2011 €1.85Stg £1.50
TWO-DAY SERIES STARTS TODAY
Surviving the mental health systemSurviving the mental health system
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INDEX
FEATURES................................. 17
MONEY&JOBS ...................... 21-25
SPORT ................................. 26-33
DEATHS .................................... 37
5m drug
prescriptions
for mental
health a year
■ Cost of prescriptions surpasses €110m a year
■ True figure thought to be much higher as data
only covers medical card holders
Real cost
Medical card and drug
payment scheme
prescriptions:
■ Xanax prescribed
493,190 times in 2009
at a cost of over
€1.2m.
■ Valium prescribed
484,814 times at a cost
of €496,484.
■ Anti-psychotic drug
Zyprexa prescribed
221,666 times at a cost
of over €23m.
■ Zimovane, a sleep-
ing tablet, was pre-
scribed 596,521 times
at a cost of over €4m.
by Jennifer Hough
MORE than five million
prescriptions for powerful
drugs to treat depression,
psychosis, anxiety or lack
of sleep are being written
every year, costing in ex-
cess of €110 million, offi-
cial figures have revealed.
The true extent of
so-called “pill-popping” in
Ireland, however, is much
more as the only figures
recorded are for medical
card holders and people
claiming through drug
payments schemes, which
accounts for less than half
the population.
Figures compiled by the
Irish Examiner from the
HSE’s 2009 Primary Care
Reimbursement Service
show 14,000 prescriptions
for anti-depressants, ben-
zodiazapenes (addictive
tranquillising pills), anti-
psychotics and sleeping
tablets were being written
every day, at a cost of
€113m. The drugs are
now being prescribed as
often as common antacid
tablets.
A report in 2002 found
11.6% of the adult medical
card population were using
benzodiazepines.
Since that report, the
prescribing of Valium and
Xanax, both used to treat
anxiety and panic, have in-
creased dramatically, with
399,798 prescriptions writ-
ten for Xanax in 2009,
compared with 283,000 in
2005.
The Mental Health
Commission, during the
inspections of 2010, found
the use of benzodiazepine
in both acute and long-stay
units was widespread. In
total, 57% of in-patients
were prescribed benzodi-
azepines. Of these, 62%
were on regular doses of
the highly addictive drugs.
Nine anti-depressants,
most of which are selective
serotonin re-uptake in-
hibitors (SSRIs), were
prescribed more than 2.2
million times in 2009.
Basil Miller, director of
communications at the
Wellbeing Foundation, said
it is clear from the data that
anti-depressants are grossly
over-prescribed.
“This is largely down to
inappropriate prescribing,
where anti-depressant
scripts are written as first
recourse for depression
when all the guidelines
state that they are not to be
used as a first treatment for
depression and are not ap-
propriate for mild to mod-
erate depression.
“Because counselling
and talk therapy, which
work better for depression,
are not widely available in
the general medical service
and are costly in private
practice, pills are prescribed
which should not be pre-
scribed,” he said.
“Virtually everyone who
presents with depression
gets a pill. As severe de-
pression is diagnosed in
only 5% of cases, this
means that 95% of patients
are being given anti-de-
pressants contrary to
guidelines.
“If the guidelines were
followed, the bill for anti-
depressants would be
€3m, not €60m. It’s time
to spend that €57m on
talk therapies which work
rather than lining the
pockets of the drug com-
panies by paying for the
wrong — and ineffective
— treatment.”
In relation to anti-psy-
chotic drugs, usually pre-
scribed for schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder or to man-
age psychosis, former men-
tal health inspector Dr
Dermot Walsh maintains
that second generation
anti-psychotics — such as
the current most common-
ly prescribed olanzapine
(better known as Zyprexa)
— cause “substantial ad-
verse effects”, compromis-
ing life expectancy in
psychiatric patients.
Dr Walsh said that there
is emerging evidence
that some changes in the
structure of the brain,
previously thought to be
the consequence of the
schizophrenic process, may
actually be treatment-
related.
INSIDE
by Niamh Hennessy
THOUSANDS of staff at AIB
have been offered the chance to
get a new uniform — just over
two years since they last got one.
The bank, which is owned by
the state, sent a memo to employ-
ees saying anyone who wants a
new uniform can have one.
An AIB spokesman said: “Up to
assistant manager level, staff in
branches and other locations can
wear the uniform. The last time
the bank provided the opportunity
for staff to replace garments was
in January 2009.”
He would not say how many
staff members will be eligible for
the new uniform, nor would he
say what the uniforms were
costing. It is understood, however,
that the new uniforms are being
delivered to staff next week.
It is estimated that there could
be as many as 8,000 staff through-
out AIB’s retail division — which
includes branches and business
centres in Ireland, the North and
Britain, as well as the company’s
head office.
Based on these numbers, it has
been estimated that replacing all
the uniforms could cost as much
as €1.6 million.
Director with moneycoach.ie,
Frank Conway, said: “I think the
meanwhile, when asked how
often they replaced uniforms,
made no comment other than:
“Frontline staff in our branch
network who are in customer-
facing roles are encouraged to
wear staff uniforms that are
provided by the bank.”
The Government recently paid
out the final €6.1 billion of the
€14.8bn needed to recapitalise
AIB.
Yesterday, the bank confirmed it
was selling AIB JerseyTrust to
Capita Group for €14.3m. Also
this week, it said it was selling
its outsourcing operation AIB
International Financial Services to
Capita for €33.1m.
AIB, once one of Ireland’s
biggest banks, is almost fully state-
owned after receiving enormous
state bailouts. The group has
already received more than
€7.2bn in aid from the Govern-
ment.
majority of bank
customers would
prefer the money
was used to reduce
their fees and
service charges as
well as get back
to lending to
businesses and
consumers.”
Bank of Ireland,
29,000 Somali children
under 5 die in famine
by Jason Straziuso
Nairobi, Kenya
THE drought and famine in
Somalia have killed more
than 29,000 children under
the age of 5, according to
US estimates, the first time
such a precise death toll has
been released related to the
Horn of Africa crisis.
The United Nations has
said previously that tens of
thousands of people have
died in the drought, the
worst in Somalia in 60 years.
The UN says 640,000
Somali children are acutely
malnourished, a statistic that
suggests the death toll of
small children will rise.
Nancy Lindborg, an
official with the US govern-
ment aid arm USAID, told a
congressional committee in
Washington that the US
estimates more than 29,000
children under the age of 5
have died in the last 90 days
in southern Somalia. That
number is based on nutri-
tion and mortality surveys
verified by the US Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The UN has declared
three new regions in Soma-
lia famine zones, bringing
the total number to five.
Out of a population of
roughly 7.5 million, the UN
says 3.2 million Somalis are
in need of immediate life-
saving assistance.
Getting aid to Somalia is
difficult because al-Qaida-
linked militants control
much of the country’s most
desperate areas. Al-Shabab
has denied that a famine is
taking place, and won’t give
access to the World Food
Programme, the world’s
biggest provider of food aid.
Tens of thousands of
refugees have fled south-
central Somalia in the hope
of finding food at camps in
Ethiopia, Kenya and in Mo-
gadishu, the Somali capital.
Hundreds of millions of
euro have been donated to
fight the hunger crisis, but
the UN says it needs hun-
dreds of millions more.
The continuing lack of
rain means the crisis will
only deepen, with the rest
of southern Somalia to
reach famine levels within
six weeks, the UN’s Office
for the Coordination of Hu-
manitarian Affairs said.
UN humanitarian coordi-
nator for Somalia, Mark
Bowden has called on “all
parties to support an urgent
scale up of assistance so that
we can save the lives of
those who most need our
support at this critical mo-
ment”.
■ UNDER the Mental
Health Act 2001, people
can be involuntarily
detained if they are
deemed to be suffering
from a mental disorder.
A review is held
within 21 days.
A lawyer is appointed
to represent the patient
and a consultant
psychiatrist reviews the
case.
NEWS: P8&9
■ WE should be far
more open to
supporting a person
struggling with these
terrible, but entirely
natural, difficulties. We
should not rely on
blunderbuss medication
to lift the darkness in
the souls of so many.
We must find a better,
more humane way to
fight this epidemic.
EDITORIAL: P14
■ WE talk to a woman
who refuses to allow
schizophrenia to take
over her life, and to
the founder of Hearing
Voices Ireland.
We also look at the
failure to embrace a
recovery model of care,
as experts warn that a
cultural change is
needed within the
mental health services.
TOMORROW
LADIES DAY EARNS ITS STRIPES
Aine Horgan from Dublin at Blossom Hill Ladies Day at the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins
AIB to spend €1.6m on new staff uniforms
SPECIAL
INVESTIGATION
“As a family, we have
lost so much in terms
of intimacy and time
together. Joshua has
missed out on a father
and we have conduct-
ed most of our family
relationship in a
locked visitor’s room,
which has been
devastating.”
Grainne Humphrys,
John Hunt’s partner
SEE: Page 7
THE HIDDEN EPIDEMIC