Doctors ‘prescribe sleeping pills to teens’

DOCTORS are prescribing teenagers as young as 14 sleeping pills to cope with exam stress, according to the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.

Deputy Batt O’Keeffe claimed a crackdown on “irresponsible prescribing by GPs” was necessary, as well as tougher regulations to deal with the issue.

But a parents group said his committee would do better to address the causes of teenage stress.