Bitterest pills

IT'S a sunny, early-autumn day and yet inside Michael Burkinshaw's home curtains are drawn and the central heating is on high. Michael sits in an armchair, apologising for not getting up to greet me. While his partner Maureen Barraclough gets me a drink, Michael talks about the 400ft garden at the back of their Thorganby cottage, with the 120 trees and vegetable plot which he used to love attending.

But today he lives like a prisoner in his own home. In constant pain and unable to walk, he hasn't been out of his house since August.

Hyper-sensitive to light, temperature, sound and even touch, Michael has to live in dark, quiet, warm conditions. Such is his sensitivity, that it takes him two hours a day to have a wash.

"I haven't had a bath for years. I haven't washed my legs for 12 months because I can't stand the pain. People might think I'm a dirty sod, but the pain is just unbearable," he says, wincing in agony as he tries to move his legs stretched out in front of him.

"I can't control my body temperature and can't exist in anything below 70 degrees. When I go to bed, I need six hot water bottles for my legs because they get so cold.

"I also get pain in my eyes like somebody has stuck a screwdriver into them."

Michael suffers from a host of other problems including insomnia, muscle pain, headaches and bladder and digestive troubles with constant bouts of constipation and diarrhoea.

He also suffers from vertigo - so much so that he can't even lower his head to eat and has to precariously balance his food in line with his mouth at meal times.

And he has put on more than four stones in weight despite following a low-fat diet managed by Maureen, a former nurse.

She says: "He has 69 known side effects, 40 of which he can have in a day, six at any one time. Sometimes, he shakes so much on waking that I have to hold the spoon to enable him to eat his cereal.

"I've cried a lot. It's upsetting to see someone you care for in constant pain every day."

Michael, a 56-year-old former BT worker, confides that he often dreams of his past, when he was well. "I'm back at 35 years of age doing normal, everyday things. I can run, I can walk. Then I wake up - and it's a nightmare because where I was in my dream is so much better than the life I have now."

Michael says countless tests have confirmed there is no underlying medical condition to blame for his myriad of health problems.

The only other explanation is the side effects of long-term use of tranquillisers.

In 1977, while living in West Yorkshire, Michael was prescribed the drug Ativan. He'd had a bust-up with a then girlfriend who insisted he go to his GP to "get something for his short temper".

Ativan was prescribed - one of the family of tranquillising benzodiazepine drugs - which most commonly was used to treat anxiety and insomnia.

Today, there are strict guidelines on the use of Ativan - also known as Lorazepam - which is ten times stronger than Valium. It is recommended to be used for no longer than two to four weeks.

But back in the Seventies, Michael recalls getting the tablets without any information about side-effects or how long they should be used for.

"If I'd had information about the side effects then, I'd never have taken them," says Michael.

In fact, Michael took Ativan for 18 years. After the first year, he suffered an epileptic fit - an unusual side effect - during which he banged his head repeatedly. He suffered memory loss and had to give up his job.

When he met Maureen in 1987, he was suffering from life-endangering thrombosis problems, again another side effect of the drug.

On medical advice, he switched to the less-powerful tranquilliser Valium, which he says triggered the bizarre and debilitating array of symptoms he has today.

Michael explains: "They told me I was one of very few who suffer a cross-over intolerance from Ativan to Valium."

He is now working with his GP to wean himself off tranquillisers for good, but it's an uphill struggle.

He can only reduce his dosage by the tiniest amount every three months, and even then the withdrawal effects are horrendous. "My symptoms flare up and are five times worse," says Michael.

Withdrawing from benzodiazepines after long-term use is very difficult - and dangerous - and has to be done under medical supervision. Michael estimates he will be 70 by the time he comes off the drugs.

Michael is just one of the 1.2 million people in this country who are thought to be addicted to benzodiazepines.

Their plight will be explored at a special conference in London this week, which Maureen will address, calling on compensation for involuntary tranquilliser addicts like Michael.

But getting compensation amounts to another huge struggle.

Six years ago, a UK court action by benzodiazepine victims against the drugs manufacturers failed after legal aid was withdrawn.

Michael's pension, which he has because he had to give up his job through ill health, makes him ineligible for legal aid, and he feels bitterly that justice is being denied to him.

"I want to go to court so a jury can see how I have to live and what's been done to me.

" I think I should have some kind of redress after all the drugs companies made millions."

Determined to fight on, he has contacted his MP John Grogan and MEP Edward McMillan-Scott and asked for their help, advice and support.

Michael says: "I'm getting worse and I don't know how much longer Maureen will be able to look after me in the house.

"Maureen is the only thing that has kept me alive - and the fact that while I'm alive, I'm a thorn in their side."

More than a million addicts, 16 million prescriptions, one problem

Around 1.2 million people in the UK are thought to be affected by addiction to benzodiazepines, according to the charity Mind. An estimated 16 million prescriptions are issued each year, says the charity, with the drugs being prescribed to one in four adults.

Women are twice as likely to be prescribed benzodiazepines than men.

More than one million pensioners take these tranquillisers each night to help them sleep.

Phil Woolas, Labour MP for Oldham who is leading the parliamentary campaign on this matter, says latest figures show the drugs are still being prescribed at above the recommended level.

No victim has ever been compensated.

The government says research is being carried out into benzodiazepine addiction and GPs are being warned about the dangers of these drugs.

Several organisations are working in the voluntary sector to help people overcome this type of addiction.

The campaign group Victims of Tranquillisers (VOT) is awaiting judgement from the European Court of Human Rights on its move to sue the Government for failure to give benzodiazepine victims a fair trial by withdrawing their legal aid.

Dr Reg Peart, founder of VOT, hopes this week's conference will help spearhead a national campaign to reduce the scale of the problem.

He would like to see the drugs reclassified as class A, like heroin, more funding and treatment for addicts, compensation and a fall in the prescribing rates.

He warned users of the drugs not to stop taking them without consulting their GP first.

Helpful contacts

Victims of Tranquillisers

Dr Reg Peart,

Flat 9, Vale Lodge, Vale Road,

Bournemouth, BH1 3SY.

Tel: 01202 311689

Council for Involuntary Tranquilliser Addiction (CITA)

Cavendish House, Brighton Road,

Waterloo, Liverpool, L22 5NG

Tel: 0151 474 9626

Helpline: 0151 949 0102