The disaster of the pain pill culture – how prescription drugs can ruin lives

When your GP gestures you to sit down in the chair in front of them, you unquestioningly believe you’re taking the first step to getting better.

When they print you a prescription, you rarely query that small sheet will go some way at least to solving your problem.

Ant McPartlin would have thought that when he was prescribed the painkiller Tramadol for chronic knee pain that began two years ago.

The busy Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity host would have been struggling to do his job without something to ease his distress; few would question a medical professional’s conclusion that this opiate-based painkiller was a reasonable solution.

But this week a broken Ant, tragically far from his usual cheeky self, checked himself into rehab, revealing he had become addicted to the painkiller; that in fact, the solution had become a terrifying problem.

Please click the link below to read further:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/disaster-pain-pill-culture-how-10656789