A drive to reduce opioid prescriptions in primary care is having success as patients move to therapeutic alternatives to drugs, it was announced today.

The NHS has experienced a 13.9% reduction in benzodiazepine prescriptions in the last four years and a 10.2% reduction in use of z-drugs, NHS England announced. At the time as many as a quarter of adults in England were receiving antidepressants or one of these drugs for chronic pain.

Patients on these drugs should receive “routine medicine reviews” and move, as appropriate, to alternative therapies, NHS England said as it announced new guidance in the form of a “framework”. One example is a patient in Gloucestershire, Harry, who has become involved in music events, which he said helps with the mental health aspects of his chronic pain.

National medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “We know that patients who require prescriptions for potentially addictive drugs can become dependent and struggle with withdrawal, and this new action plan helps NHS services to continue positive work in this space having already slashed opioid prescriptions by almost half a million over the last four years. The plan gives clear guidance to support patients who no longer need these drugs to provide them with routine medicine reviews and move them on to other, alternative therapies where appropriate, saving both lives and taxpayer money in the process.”

NHS England national clinical director for prescribing Professor Tony Avery said: we need to be alert to the risks of some medicines, particularly when used over a long period of time, and the framework we are publishing today empowers local services to work with people to ensure they are being effectively supported when a medicine is no longer providing overall benefit”.