Controlled Drug in the United Kingdom classification of medicines. Special responsibilities are placed upon pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacies and doctors in the stocking, distribution, issuing of prescriptions, supply and disposal of items listed under the first three of the schedules. The regulations have been further tightened since Dr Harold Shipman used diamorphine to murder hundreds of his patients during the late 20th century. Drugs which are not used medically, and thus their possession and supply is prohibited; e.g. cannabis and LSD except when licensed by the Home Office to carry out research. Substances subject to the full controlled drug requirements; e.g. diamorphine (heroin), pethidine, cocaine, methadone, methylphenidate,
Analgesic nephropathy between the 1960s and 1980s. As the use of phenacetin declined, so too did the prevalence of analgesic nephropathy as a cause of end-stage kidney disease. Data from Switzerland, for example, demonstrated a decline in the prevalence of analgesic nephropathy among people with end-stage kidney disease, from 28% in 1981 to 12% in 1990. An autopsy study performed in Switzerland suggested that the prevalence of analgesic nephropathy in the general population has likewise decreased; the prevalence was 3% in 1980 and 0.2% in 2000. While these data demonstrate that analgesic nephropathy has been all but eliminated in some regions, in