They sit on pharmacy shelves in familiar packaging, priced like everyday essentials and bought without a second thought. No prescription needed. No questions asked. Yet for millions of people across the UK, what began as a routine trip to the chemist has quietly spiralled into something far more serious. Over the counter medicine addiction is a growing crisis that most people never see coming until it is already too late.

New research carried out for ITV’s Tonight programme has laid bare the true scale of the problem. Around ten million people in the UK may have already put themselves at risk of developing a dependency on non-prescription medicines, from codeine-based painkillers to decongestant nasal sprays and antihistamine sleep aids. These are not street drugs. They are products that carry trusted brand names, and that is precisely what makes them so dangerous.

What the Numbers Actually Tell Us

The survey, conducted by Savanta across more than 2,000 adults in the UK, focused on codeine-based painkillers including well-known brands such as Nurofen Plus and Solpadeine. The current UK guidance is clear: these products should not be used for more than three days continuously. Yet almost one in five people surveyed admitted to taking them for more than ten days in a row. One in six had used them for up to nine days.

To put that into context, more than 25 countries, including Australia since 2018, have already removed codeine-based painkillers from over the counter sale entirely, recognising the risk they pose. In the UK, they remain freely available at any pharmacy. One pack at a time, purchased again and again, by people who may not yet understand what is happening to them.

The numbers do not lie. Non-prescription drug dependency is not a fringe issue. It is a mainstream one, hiding in plain sight.

“I Was Buying 20 Boxes a Week”

Abby House was a NHS employee and mother of two before over the counter medicine addiction took hold of her life. It started, as it does for many people, with a legitimate prescription. Codeine was prescribed following gastric sleeve surgery. What followed was years of escalating use that no single pharmacy could see, because she was visiting all of them.

“I was buying at least 20 boxes a week. I was taking so much that it was making me sick,” she said. At her lowest point, she was getting through 224 tablets in two to three days. The debt she accumulated reached £8,000. The impact on her family was immeasurable.

The system that should have protected her instead made it easy. One pack per pharmacy. Drive to the next one. Repeat. Do the same online. No single checkpoint existed to see the full picture.

“I believe it kept me in addiction for three years longer than I needed to be,” she said. She is now in recovery, but her story is a stark reminder that accessibility is not the same as safety.

Nasal Sprays and Sleep Aids: The Problem Goes Further

Codeine is far from the only concern. Decongestant nasal sprays containing oxymetazoline or xylometazoline have quietly become another source of widespread non-prescription drug dependency across the UK. A separate Ipsos survey commissioned by ITV News found that up to 5.5 million people may have been exposing themselves to dependence by using these sprays beyond the recommended period.

Georgia has been reliant on decongestant sprays for two decades. The cycle she describes is one of chemical entrapment.

“When I’ve tried to stop, I just got really anxious. I just feel like I can’t breathe, I can’t eat, I can’t sleep,” she said.

The medicines regulator, the MHRA, has since tightened guidance on these sprays, cutting the recommended maximum usage period from seven days to five. It is a move in the right direction, but for those already dependent, guidance alone does not break the cycle.

Sleep aids present a third front in this crisis. Surveys of users of antihistamine-based products found troubling patterns: one in six users of Nytol, one in five users of Sleepease, and over a third of Phenergan users admitted to using them beyond the recommended period. Dr Hugh Selsick, Consultant in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine at UCLH, did not mince his words on the consequences.

“Long-term blockade of that receptor significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia,” he said.

These are not minor side effects. These are life-altering and potentially fatal outcomes, from products people buy alongside their shopping.

Nobody Is Counting the Cost

Perhaps the most unsettling revelation to emerge from this investigation is not how many people are affected, but how little anyone in authority actually knows. There is no joined-up database. No national picture. No early warning system.

Dr Roz Gittins, Chief Pharmacy Officer of the General Pharmaceutical Council, was candid about the gap.

“There is a challenge in that the data that is available isn’t joined up,” she told ITV Tonight. “As the regulator of pharmacies, we don’t have sight of that data, we don’t have access to that information.”

Without that data, over the counter medicine addiction cannot be properly tracked, measured, or tackled. Policymakers cannot identify hotspots. Regulators cannot evaluate whether current guidelines are working. Families cannot understand why someone they love is unwell.

The absence of oversight is not just a bureaucratic failing. It is a safeguarding failure, and people are paying for it with their health, their finances, and their relationships.

The Damage That Builds Silently

Unlike many forms of substance dependency, over the counter medicine addiction rarely announces itself dramatically. The harm accumulates quietly, in the background of ordinary life. Codeine-based products often also contain paracetamol or ibuprofen, and prolonged overuse raises the risk of stomach ulcers, gastric perforation, and serious liver and kidney damage.

By the time physical symptoms become impossible to ignore, dependency is often already deeply entrenched. The body has adapted. Stopping without support becomes not just difficult, but in some cases medically dangerous.

This is not a matter of weak willpower or poor character. It is a physiological process, triggered by products that were never intended to be taken long-term, sold in a way that makes long-term use all too easy.

The Official Response Falls Short

The Department of Health and Social Care has said that all over the counter medicines are kept under continuous review, and that action is taken when evidence of harm emerges. PAGB, the consumer healthcare association representing brands in this space, has pointed to the importance of reading packaging guidance and consulting pharmacists.

These responses reflect a system that still treats this primarily as a consumer responsibility. Read the label. Ask the pharmacist. Make good choices.

But for someone already in the grip of non-prescription drug dependency, that advice arrives too late. And for someone who does not yet know they are at risk, a three-line warning on the back of a box is not protection enough.

The countries that have already restricted codeine sales did not wait for public awareness campaigns to work. They removed the risk from the equation. The UK has yet to follow.

The Quiet Warning Worth Heeding

Nobody plans to become dependent on a painkiller they bought at a chemist. Nobody budgets for an addiction that began with a blocked nose or a sleepless night. That is what makes over the counter medicine addiction so insidious. It does not feel like addiction, not at first. It feels like managing a problem.

The research is clear. The stories are real. And the gap between what the public understands about these products and what they are actually capable of doing remains dangerously wide.

Knowing the risks before reaching for that familiar box may be the most important thing a person can do. Not for any abstract reason, but because the people in this story once stood exactly where every reader stands now, in a pharmacy, with a straightforward problem, looking for a quick solution.

Source: dbrecoveryresources