FEWER prescription painkillers such as morphine and methadone are being given to Oxfordshire patients compared to three years ago, NHS figures reveal.

According to the data, the county's doctors are now prescribing around half as many opioids as the national average, with 7,949 prescriptions for the drugs given out in 2017.

A reduction from 9,317 in 2014.

Prescription painkillers, such as Methadone, Tramadol and morphine, can be highly addictive and have high mortality rates.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, who compiled the data, looked at high doses of opioids equivalent to a daily dose of 120mg.

In 2017 there were 10.8 opioid prescriptions for every thousand patients, significantly lower than the national average of 20.8.

Such prescription drugs are used for relieving acute pain and palliative care, however there is little evidence they are helpful for long-term pain.

The study also found a significant north-south divide in terms of the level of opioid prescriptions.

Among the top ten per cent of CCGs for opioids prescriptions, 15 were in the north of England, four in the midlands, and two in the south.

While all of the CCGs in the lowest ten per cent for opioid prescriptions were in London and the south of England.

Rates vary from 59.5 prescriptions per thousand in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, to just 3.8 in Wandsworth.

According to ONS data, there were 829 deaths from opioids, excluding heroin, in England and Wales in 2016.