PRIMARY HEADS LEAD SURGE IN USE OF PROZAC

A NEW drug problem is emerging in Britain's schools: the head is popping
pills. Head teachers are turning to antidepressants, most commonly Prozac,
to help them cope with the demands of their jobs.

A survey of primary schools has revealed that 1 in 10 heads is taking the
drugs, up to eight times the national average. Education authorities are so
concerned that telephone hotlines are being set up to give heads
psychiatric help.

Head teachers blame the sweeping educational changes of the past decade
which have included taking over responsibility for their schools' budgets,
the introduction of a national curriculum and performance league tables.

They say the reforms, combined with declining standards of parenting, mean
they now spend more time as managers and unofficial social workers than as
teachers.

"It's like Fort Apache out there," said Rodney Sabine, an education
management consultant who took early retirement as head of Liphook junior
school in Hampshire after suffering a stressrelated illness but who did
not take drugs. "As local government withdraws from communities, the
schools remain outposts. Heads are under all sorts of pressures."

The alert over drugs follows a survey of Hampshire primary schools by Ted
Winfield, 53, who retired three years ago as head of a primary school. He
was suffering from depression and himself took antidepressants.

He sent a questionnaire to 570 heads as part of his research for a
doctorate. Of 180 who responded, 40% said they were affected by stress,
causing exhaustion and irritability; 18 had been prescribed antidepressants
and sedatives.

Winfield said: "I have no doubt this is a national problem. Heads feel
anxious, they feel they can't cope. I found people who had seriously
considered suicide ­ a small number but enough for it to be of concern."

The average head of a 250pupil primary school earns £31,000 a year. Many
are retiring early rather than face the rigours of going to school: 520 out
of 1,280 head teachers who retired early last year did so because of poor
health. A recruitment agency has been commissioned to fill teaching
vacancies which are at their highest for 20 years.

Hampshire has set up Headline, a phone service which puts head teachers
into contact with a clinical psychologist. A similar service has started
in Sheffield where an occupational health nurse runs courses on stress
management for heads.

Doctors say the prescription of Prozac among head teachers is much higher
than for the general public. Last year doctors issued 5.3m prescriptions
for antidepressants to an estimated 500,000 patients. Professor Sean Hilton
of St George's hospital medical school in Tooting, south London, who
recorded a 116% increase in new prescriptions for antidepressants over a
fiveyear period, said: "The figure for heads may be an underestimate as
well; they may be underreporting."

The widespread use of the drugs has alarmed teaching organisations. Chris
Davis, head of Queniborough primary school near Leicester and spokesman for
the 8,000member National Primary Heads' Association, said: "We suspect it
is worse in innercity areas where the pressures are greater."

But Sir Rhodes Boyson, a former headmaster and exTory MP, said: "I
certainly never heard of any heads taking drugs in my day. If heads cannot
do the job they should get rid of them, but if they can they should give
them backing. A head teacher used to be sovereign in his school; now he
has to pick up the problems of society."