All opioid medicines in the UK will carry prominent warnings on their labels saying they can cause addiction, the health secretary has announced.

Axar.az reports citing BBC.

Matt Hancock acted after figures in England and Wales revealed a-more-than 60% increase in prescriptions for opioid painkillers in the last decade.

People needed protection "from the darker side to painkillers," he said.

Health experts welcomed the move, saying opioids can cause "life-altering and sometimes fatal addictions".

Opioids, such as morphine or fentanyl, are derived from opium and can be highly effective for managing severe pain but they can also be highly addictive, the Department of Health (DoH) said.

It warned the number of prescriptions in England and Wales issued for these sorts of medicines had risen dramatically from more than 14 million in 2008 to 23 million last year.

The DoH added there are also some opioids available over the counter, such as codeine-based painkillers, which are weaker in strength but can also cause addiction.

From 2008 to 2018, the number of codeine-related deaths in England and Wales has more than doubled to more than 150, it said.

In Scotland, codeine-related deaths spiked at 43 in 2016, dropping to 27 in 2017, National Records of Scotland said.

In Northern Ireland, there were 16 codeine-related deaths in 2017.