United Kingdom prescriptions

In the United Kingdom, prescriptions are required for all medicines supplied under the National Health Service (NHS) and for all prescription-only medicines. Prescriptions may only be written by a doctor or dentist registered in the United Kingdom. 

Hitiris, T. (2000), Prescription charges in the United Kingdom a critical review , University of York, Department of Economics and Related Studies discussion papers in economics No 00/04, York. 

Over the last few years, there have been a number of initiatives by companies in the United Kingdom to carry out disease awareness programmes but again these have not discussed prescription medicines explicitly. 

In the UK Directive 92/26/EEC (now part of Directive 2001/83/ EEC) made a relatively minor impact on the matter of assigning legal status to products for supply purposes across the Member States. It laid down the criteria to be applied to determining whether a product should be on prescription only (or subject to restricted limited supply) or available without prescription. It otherwise continued to allow Member States to preserve multi-tier categorisation of product, such as applies in the United Kingdom, where a product may be prescription only pharmacy only or on general sale. ... 

The list of grounds for exemption from a prescription charge in the United Kingdom is extensive. The social grounds are low income, children below the age of 16 years, people in full-time education up to 19 years of age, pregnant women and women in the puerperium following either a live or still birth, old age (women over 60, men over 65, but since October 1995 men over 60) and war pensioners. 

Profits allowed on sales of prescription medicines in the United Kingdom are limited to a target return on assets related to UK sales. 

Figure 1.6 Number of antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants per antibiotic anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC) classification in 13 European countries in 1997. In parentheses are the ATCs used by the WHO. Tet = tetracyclines, Pen = penicillin, Ex-Pen = extended-spectrum penicillins, B-Lac = (3-lactamase-sensitive penicillins. Cep = cephalosporins, TMP = trimethoprim (alone or in combination), Mac + Lin = macrolides and lincosamides, Mac = macrolides, Lin = lincosamides. Ami = aminoglycosides, and Qui = quinolone. The 13 countries are SP = Spain, GR = Greece, BG = Belgium, PR = Prance, PL = Portugal, IT = Italy, PI = Pinland, UK = United Kingdom, DE = Denmark, AU = Austria, GE = Germany, SW = Switzerland, and NL = Netherlands. (Based on data from Molstad et al., 2002.)...

The SSRIs are associated with low cardiotoxicity, particularly when compared with the TCAs, and this feature of their pharmacological profile gives them a low potential for lethality in overdose. It has been estimated from coroners reports in the United Kingdom that the SSRIs are associated with deaths in only 1-2 overdoses per million prescriptions compared with 35 per million prescriptions for the TCAs [Henry et al. 1995). 

Metrebian N, Mott J, Carnwath Z, Carnwath T, Stimson GV Sell L (2007). Pathways into receiving a prescription for diamorphine (heroin) for the treatment of opiate dependence in the United Kingdom. European Addiction Research, 13, 144-7... 

Americans spent more on prescription drugs in 2004 than they did on gasoline or fast food. They paid twice as much for their prescription medicines that year as they spent on either higher education or new automobiles. Americans spend more on medicines than do all the people of Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina combined.11... 

Figure 8.1 Trends in antidepressant prescriptions in the United Kingdom (1991-2000)...

Within each class or subclass drugs are listed in order of frequency of prescription in the United Kingdom (1997 data). Abbreviations RIMA—reversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase NaRI—noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor SNRI—serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor NaSSA—noradrenaline and specific serotonergic antidepressant. 

In the 1980s an entirely new class of antidepressant arrived with the SSRIs, firstly fluvoxamine immediately followed by fluoxetine (Prozac). Within 10 years, the SSRI class accounted for half of antidepressant prescriptions in the United Kingdom. Further developments in the evolution of the antidepressants have been novel compounds such as venlafaxine, reboxetine, nefazodone and mirtazapine, and a reversible monoamine oxidase inhibitor, moclobemide. 

Unlike the United States, many countries further divide non-prescription medications into different subclasses. Table 8 contains information regarding OTC products around the world. For example, in the United Kingdom, non-prescription medications known as P medicines may only be sold in registered pharmacies under the supervision of a registered pharmacist while other non-prescription medications, known as the general sale list medicines, may be sold at all other retail outlets. There has been a push in recent years to consider a third class of medications sold only under the supervision of the pharmacist in the United States. Many consumers and healthcare providers favor this move with more and more products available as OTCs. However, limiting the access to these products, especially in rural areas, has kept this issue still under debate. 

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