“The consumption of benzodiazepines in Spain it is abusive and unjustified“. antonio torreshead of the Mental Health Working Group of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG) is forceful in the face of “a problem that needs a solution”.
“We are facing an endemic disease throughout the Spanish health system,” underlines the specialist, with data in hand.
In the last 10 years, the sale of anxiolytics and antidepressants in pharmacies it has increased by 30%, with increases in consumption year after year. In 2022, 111,182 million drugs of this class were dispensed, half, approximately benzodiazepines, “figures that make Spain the first country in the world in its consumption.”
“In Spain they consume 110 doses per day per 1,000 inhabitants“, a volume much higher than Belgium and Portugal, the next in the ranking, with 80 doses per day per 1,000 inhabitants and far removed from the 0.4 doses/day/1,000 inhabitants taken in Germany.
After alcohol and tobacco, benzodiazepines are the substance with highest addictive consumption in Spainabove cannabis.