A United Nations drug expert, speaking at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, in Cardiff, has said that doctors in developed countries are over-prescribing drugs like painkillers, anti-depressants and sedatives, some of which can be addictive. Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN's International Narcotics Control Board, says such drugs are being used to counter social problems, sometimes without solid medical justification. Prof Ghodse says that in some countries as many as 35 per cent of patients prescribed drugs that affect mental function are not diagnosed as having a mental disorder, and that children who are prescribed drugs for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are often not ill. (Reuters 25/06/02)
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