Doctors should print out fewer pharmaceutical labels for sleeping tablets, a health expert has warned.
Professor Allan Young from Royal College of Psychiatrists said many people are getting addicted to the drugs as GPs give them out to treat minor sleep problems.
He warned in an interview with the Daily Mail that they are not much different in composition to benzodiazepines such as Valium.
"They're not prescribed for daytime use as Valium was, but they are still prescribed too freely for too long," Professor Young commented, adding that sleeping pills should only be used in severe cases and for two to four weeks at a time.
Keele University found in 2007 than insomnia affects one in three Britons at some point.
There were ten million prescriptions for sleeping pills written in 2010.
Last month, the Information Centre and the Co-operative Pharmacy found that more pharma labels for antidepressants are being printed in Britain than was the case ten years ago.
Denny Bros Ltd, 04 January 2012
