Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to raise the issue of the use of minor tranquilisers in intentional overdoses and attempted suicide.

In 2010, the national deliberate self-harm registry recorded 3,568 intentional overdoses involving minor tranquilisers, benzodiazepines. These account for 30% of all self-harm presentations at accident and emergency departments in 2010. Access to these medications is through prescription, illegal purchases through the Internet and purchases on the streets. Given the rate of use in overdoses, it is clear there is an oversupply of such medications at present. In September 2010, a European initiative between regulatory authorities and Interpol seized large quantities of Internet purchased medications, including minor tranquilisers.

Anecdotal evidence would suggest that these medications are regularly prescribed to people suffering from common medical health complaints, such as anxiety or mild depression. Such prescriptions are often repeated without the patient being advised to seek alternative therapies for their symptoms. While there is no doubt that such medications have a place in treating certain mental health as well as other medical conditions, it is important that greater controls be put in place to prevent people accessing sufficient amounts to use in an intentional overdose. Raising awareness with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the Irish College of General Practitioners and the College of Psychiatry would seem the most logical way to reduce prescriptions of these medications. I suggest the Department of Health and the HSE should seriously consider making an approach in this regard to these organisations.

The objective of Reach Out, the national strategy for action on suicide prevention published in 2005, states it is necessary to "limit access to the means and methods of self harm and suicide". It is internationally recognised and repeatedly proven that restricting the means of suicide is a key approach in suicide prevention. There are many examples to support this throughout the world, including the restriction of firearms. Even in the United Kingdom, following the introduction of catalytic converters, there was a considerable drop in the levels of suicide.

The HSE is currently running a campaign to reduce the overuse and over prescription of antibiotics. It should now look at a similar campaign to reduce the overuse of minor tranquilisers. Overdosing is a common method of self-harm, involving 71% of all self-harm acts registered last year, and more so among women, 77%, than men, 65%. Of all intentional drug overdoses, 42% involved a minor tranquiliser, representing 3,568 overdoses, as I already mentioned. A high proportion of overdoses involving minor tranquilisers has been observed since 2004, without any significant change and with an over-representation of men. Almost half of all female overdoses, 48%, and 36% of all male overdoses involved an analgesic drug.

See this speech in context