A real-time reporting system for controlled drugs may improve the safety of Schedule 8 medicines
Over the past decade, increased prescribing of pharmaceutical opioids in a number of countries has raised professional and public concern about iatrogenic opioid dependence and fatal opioid overdoses. Most fatal drug overdoses in the United States are now from opioids.1 Although not as high as in the US in absolute terms, the number of opioid prescriptions in Australia increased by around 300% between 1992 and 2007.2,3 This was accompanied by increased rates of injection of pharmaceutical opioids by people who regularly inject drugs,4 and professional concern about the appropriateness of prescribing these drugs for people with chronic non-cancer pain.
The full article is accessible to AMA members and paid subscribers. Login to read more or purchase a subscription now.
Please note: institutional and Research4Life access to the MJA is now provided through Wiley Online Library.
- 1. Paulozzi LJ, Budnitz DS, Xi Y. Increasing deaths from opioid analgesics in the United States. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2006; 15: 618-627.
- 2. Roxburgh A, Bruno R, Larance B, Burns L. Prescription of opioid analgesics and related harms in Australia. Med J Aust 2011; 195: 280-284. <MJA full text>
- 3. Leong M, Murnion B, Haber PS. Examination of opioid prescribing in Australia from 1992 to 2007. Intern Med J 2009; 39: 676-681.
- 4. Degenhardt L, Black E, Breen C, Bruno R. Trends in morphine prescriptions, illicit morphine use and associated harms among regular injecting drug users in Australia. Drug Alcohol Rev 2006; 25: 403-412.
- 5. Hall W, Degenhardt L. Regulating opioid prescribing to provide access to effective treatment while minimizing diversion: an overdue topic for research. Addiction 2007; 102: 1685-1688.
- 6. Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Prescription opioid policy: improving management of chronic non-malignant pain and prevention of problems associated with prescription opioid use. Sydney: Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 2009. http://www.ranzcp.org/Files/ranzcp-attachments/Resources/Submissions/CNMP-pdf.aspx (accessed Dec 2012).
- 7. Ross-Degnan D, Simoni-Wastila L, Brown JS, et al. A controlled study of the effects of state surveillance on indicators of problematic and non-problematic benzodiazepine use in a Medicaid population. Int J Psychiatry Med 2004; 34: 103-123.
- 8. Paulozzi LJ, Kilbourne EM, Desai HA. Prescription drug monitoring programs and death rates from drug overdose. Pain Med 2011; 12: 747-754.
- 9. Baehren DF, Marco CA, Droz DE, et al. A statewide prescription monitoring program affects emergency department prescribing behaviors. Ann Emerg Med 2010; 56: 19-23.e1-3.
- 10. National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. A review of opioid prescribing in Tasmania: a blueprint for the future. Sydney: University of New South Wales, 2012. http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/resource/review-opioid-prescribing-tasmania-blueprint-future (accessed Dec 2012).
Louisa Degenhardt and Nicholas Lintzeris have received an untied educational grant from Reckitt Benckiser to examine the extent of misuse, diversion and injection of buprenorphine–naloxone in Australia from 2006 to 2013. The design, conduct, interpretation and reporting of the postmarketing surveillance findings were determined by the study investigators, and the funder had no role in these. The funder had no role in the conception and writing of this paper.