LIB DEMS REVEAL WORRYING EXTENT OF SLEEPING DISORDERS IN SCOTLAND

Published on Wed 30th Dec 2009

Parliamentary Questions by the Liberal Democrats have revealed the extent of sleeping disorders in Scotland.

Over 130,000 people have consulted their GP for a sleep disorder in the last 3 years.

At the same time nearly 1.1 million drugs have been dispensed to combat the problem, at a cost of more than £1 million.

Liberal Democrat Health spokesman Ross Finnie MSP said:

"These are revealing statistics on a little-known affliction. Many thousands of people across Scotland are silently battling with sleep disorders, which can be physically and mentally debilitating.

"Insomnia ruins lives, while sleep apnoea and narcolepsy can be fatal.

"The vast majority of these GP consultations are for insomnia. Effective treatments are available at Scotland's sleep clinics but more must be done to improve access. Sleep clinics must be made a priority.

"By sending more people to sleep clinics we can keep them off sleep medicines and slash Scotland's prescriptions bill.

"I am worried that this could be the tip of the iceberg in terms of Scotland's sleep problems.

Ends.

Notes to Editors

The Liberal Democrats' Parliamentary Questions and answers are below.

Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prescriptions for drugs for sleeping disorders have been dispensed in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) drug type and (b) NHS board.

(S3W-29512)

Ms Shona Robison :

The following table shows the number of prescribed items for drugs for sleeping disorders dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors for the three years ended 31 March 2007-2009. These data exclude the direct supply of medicines to patients from hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

The data shown are for drugs that are licensed for the treatment of sleep disorders. However, these drugs can also be used to treat other conditions. Prescription data collected centrally are not patient-specific and do not indicate the condition for which a particular medicine was prescribed.

Dexamfetamine sulphate

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 564 528 329

Borders 119 103 102

Dumfries & Galloway 237 254 213

Fife 332 414 528

Forth Valley 251 190 212

Grampian 327 356 366

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 679 671 660

Highland 148 129 111

Lanarkshire 230 218 225

Lothian 596 645 629

Tayside 353 315 332

Island Boards 56 47 43

Modafinil

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 373 443 430

Borders 30 45 36

Dumfries & Galloway 83 108 166

Fife 213 301 357

Forth Valley 151 197 205

Grampian 277 378 399

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 1,078 1,461 1,638

Highland 297 390 453

Lanarkshire 626 806 900

Lothian 337 448 458

Tayside 254 283 390

Island Boards 107 114 108

1. To minimise risk of disclosure of individuals, figures for NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles have been added together.

2. The information in the table has been provided by NHS National Services Scotland

Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prescriptions for drugs for insomnia have been dispensed in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) drug type and (b) NHS board.

(S3W-29513)

Ms Shona Robison :

The following table shows the number of prescribed items for drugs for insomnia dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors in for the three years ended 31 March 2007 to 2009. These data exclude the direct supply of medicines to patients from hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

The data shown are for drugs that are licensed for the treatment of insomnia. However, these drugs can also be used to treat other conditions. Prescription data collected centrally are not patient-specific and do not indicate the condition for which a particular medicine was prescribed.

Chloral & derivatives

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 41 53 72

Borders 108 115 127

Dumfries & Galloway 17 18 *

Fife 561 578 664

Forth Valley 212 188 205

Grampian 69 85 62

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 483 586 529

Highland 106 168 154

Lanarkshire 96 109 155

Lothian 272 278 364

Orkney 0 * 10

Shetland * * *

Tayside 87 39 30

Western Isles 11 23 8

Clomethiazole

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 886 718 606

Borders 194 135 99

Dumfries & Galloway 235 268 202

Fife 918 659 605

Forth Valley 242 245 206

Grampian 485 414 405

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 2,372 1,849 1,495

Highland 217 226 208

Lanarkshire 869 690 538

Lothian 1,578 1,551 1,474

Orkney 16 7 0

Shetland 27 27 28

Tayside 969 884 730

Western Isles 53 69 37

Benzodiazepines

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 45,103 43,988 43,371

Borders 15,687 15,798 14,740

Dumfries & Galloway 22,008 21,381 20,169

Fife 31,083 30,120 28,249

Forth Valley 31,897 30,592 29,578

Grampian 48,820 45,399 40,280

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 194,532 189,823 178,409

Highland 32,526 30,904 29,360

Lanarkshire 62,302 57,525 51,463

Lothian 72,385 72,191 70,834

Orkney 1,379 1,501 1,412

Shetland 1,059 992 844

Tayside 54,451 48,336 40,935

Western Isles 5,035 4,468 4,420

Melatonin

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 0 0 95

Borders 0 0 35

Dumfries & Galloway 0 0 119

Fife 0 0 191

Forth Valley 0 0 69

Grampian 0 0 182

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 0 0 312

Highland 0 0 108

Lanarkshire 0 0 288

Lothian 0 0 297

Orkney 0 0 5

Shetland 0 0 18

Tayside 0 0 76

Western Isles 0 0 15

Zapleplon, Zolpidem and Zopiclone

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 27,194 27,106 27,504

Borders 6,050 5,367 5,081

Dumfries & Galloway 17,941 18,182 18,748

Fife 39,566 40,137 42,731

Forth Valley 22,778 24,427 25,775

Grampian 59,141 62,442 65,050

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 111,913 112,370 121,378

Highland 35,149 35,406 36,903

Lanarkshire 80,883 85,553 92,818

Lothian 31,896 32,489 34,560

Orkney 1,272 1,320 1,433

Shteland 1,405 1,326 1,309

Tayside 32,511 39,024 45,485

Western Isles 3,788 4,189 4,287

1. * indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure of individuals.

2. The information in the table has been provided by NHS National Services Scotland.

Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on prescription drugs for sleeping disorders in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.

(S3W-29514)

Ms Shona Robison :

The answer is given in the following table. The Gross Ingredient Costs (GIC) given relate to prescription items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors. (GIC is the cost of an item before any discounts are applied. It excludes adjustments and broken bulk fees.) The costs shown do not include medicines dispensed in hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

NHS Board 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Ayrshire & Arran 75,997 86,322 82,006

Borders 7,571 8,193 7,446

Dumfries & Galloway 13,766 14,998 20,099

Fife 47,764 66,515 77,327

Forth Valley 32,798 41,713 42,688

Grampian 58,672 79,648 81,967

Greater Glasgow & Clyde 201,893 260,922 307,718

Highland 47,600 56,208 61,468

Lanarkshire 97,735 137,331 162,355

Lothian 97,864 116,573 115,241

Orkney 74 3,404 4,169

Shetland 2,886 2,605 5,149

Tayside 66,542 68,776 81,308

Western Isles 13,504 14,738 10,749

The information in the table has been provided by NHS National Services Scotland.

Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) disorder and (b) NHS board.

(S3W-28858)

Ms Shona Robison :

Information on number of individuals diagnosed with sleep disorders is not held centrally.

Estimates of the number of people who consulted a GP or practice employed nurse for a sleep disorder, at least once, in each financial year from 2003-04 to 2007-08, are shown in the following table:

Financial Year Type of sleep disorder2 All sleep disorders - Number of patients3

Insomnias Sleep apnoea Other sleep disorders5 Sleep disorder - unspecified4

2003-04 Number 37,160 1,410 516 8,660 46,506

95% Confidence Interval1 (31,875-42,445) (959-1,862) (308-724) (6,936-10,383) (40,695-52,317)

2004-05 Number 41,661 1,476 380 11,922 53,561

95% Confidence Interval1* (31,086-52,237) (629-2,323) (138-622) (7,000-16,845) (42,016-65,107)

2005-06 Number 32,557 1,662 637 10,200 43,723

95% Confidence Interval1 (26,528-38,586) (1,008-2,317) (162-1,111) (6,022-14,379) (36,300-51,146)

2006-07 Number 32,325 1,394 341 12,948 45,701

95% Confidence Interval1 (25,686-38,964) (969-1,819) (174-509) (8,971-16,924) (37,856-53,547)

2007-08 Number 33,325 1,728 299 11,913 45,222

95% Confidence Interval1 (26,238-40,412) (1,266-2,190) (156-441) (8,842-14,983) (37,297-53,148)

Source: Practice Team Information, ISD

1. All estimates are subject to sampling error as they are based on a survey of approximately 5% of GP Practices. We can be 95% confident that the true estimates for Scotland would fall within this range.

2. For each patient consultation PTI practices are encouraged to choose one or more 'Read' code(s) that most accurately matches the description of the patient's problem. This is the recommended national standard coding system in General Practice.

3. The total number of patients who have consulted their GP for sleep disorders does not equal the sum of the number of patients across the 4 sleep disorder categories as an individual patient may be assigned more than 1 'Read' code. An individual may be included in 1 or more of the 4 categories.

4. 'Sleep disorder - unspecified' includes 'Read' codes where a 'sleep disorder' has been specified but the nature of it is not clearly defined.

5. 'Other sleep disorders' includes other sleep disorder where 'Read' codes define the nature of the sleep disorder, but groups codes which are selected with low frequency and it is therefore not possible

to reliably produce individual estimates. e.g. 'narcolepsy' and 'persistent hypersomnia' are included in this category

6. Estimates are not available at NHS Board level.

It should be noted that many people, with sleep disorders, who have not consulted their GP practice for this problem would not be included in these estimates.

Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals have been diagnosed with sleep apnoea in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

(S3W-28859)

Ms Shona Robison :

Information on the exact number of people who have been diagnosed with sleep apnoea in Scotland is not available centrally.

The following table gives a national estimate of the numbers of people consulting their GP practice for sleep apnoea, based on the number of patients seen for the condition in general practices participating in Practice Team Information (PTI). These figures may significantly underestimate the true number of people with sleep apnoea in Scotland, since many people living with the condition may not consult their GP practice in a particular year. The estimate also does not include people with sleep apnoea who consulted their GP practice for other reasons unrelated to sleep apnoea.

Table: Estimated number of patients who have consulted a GP or practice nurse at least once in the year for sleep apnoea:

Financial Year Estimated Number of patients Confidence Interval*

2003-04 1,410 (959-1,862)

2004-05 1,476 (629-2,323)

2005-06 1,662 (1,008-2,317)

2006-07 1,394 (969-1,819)

2007-08 1,728 (1,266-2,190)

*As the estimates are based on data from a sample of practices, 95% confidence intervals are included to indicate the accuracy of these estimates. For further information see www.isdscotland.org/isd/3729.html.