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BBC News Online: Health

Friday, 8 December, 2000, 02:30 GMT

Mentally ill 'denied drug choice'

People with mental health problems are being denied a choice of drug treatment, according to research.

A survey found that 62% of people with severe mental illness are being denied a choice of drug treatment by their doctor.

Click here to read about patients who had to fight for the right drugs

People must be able to exercise an informed choice about the drugs they are expected to take
Cliff Prior, National Schizophrenia Fellowship

The report, A Question of Choice, was commissioned by the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (NSF), the Manic Depression Fellowship and the mental health charity Mind.

Other findings included:

46% of respondents did not receive written information about the possible side effects of the medicine
43% said that side effects of prescribed medicines had badly affected their everyday life

NSF chief executive Cliff Prior said it was down to the NHS drug watchdog the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to improve the situation.

Drug review

NICE has just announced a review of drug treatments for schizophrenia.

Mr Prior said: "People must be able to exercise an informed choice about the drugs they are expected to take. That demands an end to rationing.

Schizophrenia drug facts
4.8 million items are prescribed each year, or Ł76m a year
the most frequently prescribed typical antipsychotic is thioridazine (melleril)
there is a ten-fold variation in spending on atypical antipsychotic medicines such as Olanzapine, Clozapine and Risperidone among health authorities

"Where people have been offered choice, it has made an enormous difference and they have been able to recover a high quality of life.

King's Fund chief executive Rabbi Julia Neuberger, chief executive of the healthcare watchdog the King's Fund, said people with severe mental illness were quite capable of making choices about how they were treated.

She said: "Denying those people choice is likely to reduce the likelihood that treatments will work and may force them either to take drugs with unacceptable side-effects or to go without treatment altogether."

Related to this story:
Struggling for proper treatment (08 Dec 00 | Health) Schizophrenia: The facts (13 Oct 99 | Medical notes) Warning over schizophrenics (18 Oct 00 | Health) Doctors 'ration best mental health drugs' (08 Oct 00 | Health) Breath test 'can diagnose schizophrenia' (04 Jul 00 | Health)

Internet links: Mind | NICE anouncement on schizophrenia drugs | Manic Depression Fellowship | National Schizophrenia Fellowship |
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Health Contents: Background Briefings | Medical notes |