Disturbing data: Serbian citizens take 5.5 million packages of tranquilizers a year

This is data from the National Health Insurance Fund

Serbia's citizens take five and a half million packages of tranquilizers a year, and in 2018, 3.2 million prescriptions have been realized for benzodiazepines like Bromazepam, Diazepam, and Lorazepam, the daily Politika is reporting.

In addition, 1.59 million prescriptions have been written for antidepressants last year, while about two million packages were issued at pharmacies.

These drugs are usually prescribed to older people, but non-medical use is the highest among those aged 18 to 25, while a consumption analysis shows an upward trend over the last ten years.

The director of the Laza Lazarevic Psychiatric Diseases Clinic, Ivana Stasevic Karlic, said that these drugs are often abused because they are readily available and their effect is achieved quickly.

Most people who misuse anxiolytics get medicines for free for the first time from friends, relatives or even get a prescription from a doctor. That the effect of these drugs is felt almost instantaneously is another reason for their abuse.

(Telegraf.rs/Politika/fonet.rs)