Jersey first to down a pill

Tuesday 07 October 2014

The latest figures showing that up to 10,000 Islanders have a drink problem might be a bitter pill to swallow but Jersey is proving to be ahead of the drinking game.

The UK government is considering introducing Nalmefene on the NHS next month – a drug that has been available to Islanders who are boozing too much since the beginning of the year.

The tablets are being prescribed by GP's to people drinking too much on a regular basis – that’s women who are drinking as much as half a bottle of wine and men who are having three to four pints of lager every day.

The pills get rid of the craving for another drink and are only prescribed to patients who are getting psychosocial support from the Island’s Alcohol and Drugs Service.

Clinical trials run by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) show that the pills helped cut people's drinking by 61% in six months when taken with counselling.

It's that sort of result the Health department will be keen to see here after figures show that drink-related hospital admissions in Jersey are among the highest in the UK, that alcohol-related premature deaths mean that 307 years of life are lost each year, and that most worryingly of all, between 5% and 12% of adults have a drinking problem - and around 4,000 people in Jersey are alcoholics.

But the head of the charity that sees first hand how substance abuse devastates lives, families and relationships is not convinced popping a pill will cure the problem.

Silkworth’s Chief Executive Officer Jason Wyse said: “I understand that this pill is used to help an individual reduce the amount of alcohol that they intake, which could effectively lead them into alcohol dependency, however in the real world it isn't quite as simple as that.

“There is a lot more to this and I am not sure that this pill is the answer to the social problems that the misuse of alcohol brings to individuals, families and the community, however I would be very interested in seeing the outcomes that have been achieved locally thus far."

The drug isn’t offered to alcoholics.