Rise in Sedatives Worries Serbian Doctors

For many, life in Serbia is tolerable only with the help of sedatives, it seems.

Serbs consumed some 10.6 million small boxes of sedatives over the last year. This was 2.6 million more boxes than in 2006, according to the latest data of the Serbian Health Insurance Fund, RZZO.

The research shows a rise in consumption of all types of drugs in the period from 2006 to 2010. The number of persons taking these prescriptions has remained stable, but their overall consumption of drugs is increasing, according to the research.

The upwards trend has been most marked over the past year. In the first three months of this year, for example, Serbs took 2.3 million more boxes of tranquilizers than in the first three months of 2010.

The situation with antibiotics is similar. In the first three months of this year 300,000 more boxes were prescribed than over the same period last year.

Dr Dragan Delic, from the Clinical Center of Serbia, says many doctors are prescribing these medications too easily, encouraging a culture of dependency on drugs among people.

He says doctors are piling up problems for the future.

"Over time, they [people] acquire resistance to the medicine, as wide and uncontrolled use of antibiotics opens the door for the body to become resistant [to the medicine]," Delic said.

According to him, many Serbs attempt to secure continual supplies by building up what are effectively home pharmacies, diminishing the original purpose of the drug as a last resort and a temporary measure, he added.

"Patients feel dissatisfied nowadays if they leave the [doctor's] office without getting a drug," he noted.