Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will place in the library a copy of the definition his Department uses for the term discontinuation syndrome in relation to opioid prescriptions as used by Public Health England.

Public Health England (PHE) has not used the term ‘discontinuation syndrome’ to refer to opioid dependence. The term was used in the early stages of the Prescribed Medicines Review in relation to antidepressant medication as that was the only term recognised by some stakeholders at the time the review started.

PHE’s final report on the review will clarify the use of the term. This is due to be published in summer 2019.