ReviewBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2014
An overview of the patterns of prescription opioid use, costs and related harms in Australia.
Review in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of assessment approaches to predict opioid misuse in people with cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2022Pooled it
- Potential for Harm Associated with Discharge Opioids After Hospital Stay: A Systematic Review.Drugs · 2020Pooled it
- The Economic Burden of Abuse of Prescription Opioids: A Systematic Literature Review from 2012 to 2017.Applied health economics and health policy · 2018Pooled it
- Harmonizing post-market surveillance of prescription drug misuse: a systematic review of observational studies using routinely collected data (2000-2013).Drug safety · 2015Pooled it
- Post-Discharge Opioid Prescribing After Elective Colorectal Resection: An International Survey.World journal of surgery · 2026Article
- Concurrent Prescribing of Opioids and Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs for Long-Term Use in Australian General Practice: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Using MedicineInsight.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2025Article
- Acceptability and usability of Drugs4dentBMC oral health · 2025Article
- Advancement in Opioid Abuse-deterrent Formulation Technologies and Regulatory Expectation.Current drug research reviews · 2025Review
- Is a randomised controlled trial of take home naloxone distributed in emergency settings likely to be feasible and acceptable? Findings from a UK qualitative study exploring perspectives of people who use opioids and emergency services staff.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Opioid poisoning in Newcastle over the last three decades: From heroin to prescription opioids.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2023Observational
- Article
- A multi-disciplinary program for opioid sparse arthroplasty results in reduced long-term opioid consumption: a four year prospective study.BMC anesthesiology · 2023Observational
- A scoping review of outpatient interventions to support the reduction of prescription opioid medication for chronic non cancer pain.Journal of clinical nursing · 2022Article
- Knee osteoarthritis in Australia: A 20-year case study of funding-system failure with poor outcomes.JSAMS plus · 2022Article
- Impact of Policy Interventions on Oxycodone Prescribing in Queensland, Australia: An Uncontrolled Interrupted Time Series Study.Drug safety · 2022Article
- International trends in prescription opioid sales among developed and developing economies, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional analysis of 66 countries.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2022Article
- Responding to the opioid crisis in North America and beyond: recommendations of the Stanford-Lancet Commission.Lancet (London, England) · 2022Review
- Complete opioid transition to sublingual Buprenorphine after abdominal surgery is associated with significant reductions in opioid requirements, but not reduction in hospital length of stay: a retrospective cohort study.BMC anesthesiology · 2022Article
- The Pain Medicine Curriculum Framework-structured integration of pain medicine education into the medical curriculum.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Review
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsTo report Australian population trends in subsidized prescribed opioid use, total costs to the Australian government to subsidize these medicines and opioid-related harms based on hospitalizations and accidental poisoning deaths.
methodsWe utilized three national aggregated data sources including dispensing claims from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, opioid-related hospitalizations from the National Hospital Morbidity Database and accidental poisoning deaths from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
resultsBetween 1992 and 2012, opioid dispensing episodes increased 15-fold (500 000 to 7.5 million) and the corresponding cost to the Australian government increased 32-fold ($8.5 million to $271 million). Opioid-related harms also increased. Opioid-related hospitalizations increased from 605 to 1464 cases (1998-2009), outnumbering hospitalizations due to heroin poisonings since 2001. Deaths due to accidental poisoning (pharmaceutical opioids and illicit substances combined) increased from 151 to 266 (2002-2011), resulting in a rise in the death rate of 0.78 to 1.19 deaths/100 000 population over 10 years. Death rates increased 1.8 fold in males and 1.4 fold in females.
conclusionsThe striking increase in opioid use and related harms in Australia is consistent with trends observed in other jurisdictions. Further, there is no evidence to suggest these increases are plateauing. There is currently limited evidence in Australia about individual patterns of opioid use and the associated risk of adverse events. Further research should focus on these important issues so as to provide important evidence supporting effective change in policy and practice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.