ArticleBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2019
Prevalence and incidence of prescription opioid analgesic use in Australia.
Article in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trial
- Regional Trends in the Opioid Epidemic Using Safety Signals of Drug Abuse and Dependence: A Disproportionality Analysis Using VigiBase.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2026Article
- The impact of opioid prescribing guidelines on opioid dispensation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2026Review
- Opioids and the challenges of managing chronic non-cancer pain in rural Australia: a qualitative study.The Medical journal of Australia · 2025Article
- Patterns of Analgesic Prescribing and High-Risk Prescribing in Primary Care in Ireland 2014-2022-A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Understanding the first prescription: clinical and demographic drivers of strong opioid use in primary care.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Trends in Drug Claims for Non-Specific Low Back Pain in Québec, 1997 to 2018.Musculoskeletal care · 2025Article
- Opioid prescribing prevalence and initiation rates in Victoria, Australia: insights from primary care data during a period of opioid policy changes (2017-2022).International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2025Article
- An evidence-based digital prescription opioid safety toolkit for national dissemination: co-design and user testing.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Trends in prescription opioid analgesic use in Australia from 2015 to 2022.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- Trends in prescription opioid use in Europe: A DARWIN EUFrontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Impact of codeine rescheduling on prescribing of codeine and other opioids: Interrupted time series analyses using Australian general practice data.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Article
- Nationally Representative Rates of Incident Prescription Opioid Use Among United States Adults and Selected Subpopulations: Longitudinal Cohort Study From the National Health Interview Survey, 2019 to 2020.The journal of pain · 2024Article
- Observational evidence linking psychotropic medicines to the dispensing of opioid agents in later life.Psychogeriatrics : the official journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society · 2024Observational
- Trajectories of prescription opioid tapering in patients with chronic non-cancer pain: a retrospective cohort study, 2015-2020.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2024Article
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- Article
- Article
- Opioid prescribing patterns among medical practitioners in New South Wales, Australia.Drug and alcohol review · 2023Article
- Five-Year Trajectories of Prescription Opioid Use.JAMA network open · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsThe aims of the current study were to determine the prevalence and incidence of prescription opioid analgesic use in Australia and compare the characteristics of people with and without cancer initiating prescription opioid analgesics.
methodsA retrospective population-based study was conducted using the random 10% sample of adults who were dispensed prescription opioid analgesics in Australia between July 2013 and June 2017 through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Poisson regression was used to calculate rate ratios (RR) for opioid prevalence and incidence. The characteristics of people initiating opioids, including type of opioid initiated, total oral morphine equivalents dispensed, prescriber speciality, medical comorbidities, and past analgesic and benzodiazepine use, were compared for people with and without cancer.
resultsOpioid prevalence increased {RR = 1.006 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.004, 1.008]}, while incidence decreased [RR = 0.977 (95% CI 0.975,0.979)] from 2013/2014 to 2016/2017. There were between 287 677 and 307 772 prevalent users each year. In total, 769 334 adults initiated opioids between 2013/2014 and 2016/2017, and half of these initiations were by general practitioners. Initiation with a strong opioid occurred in 55.8% of those with cancer and 28.2% of those without cancer.
conclusionRates of opioid use have remained high since 2013, with approximately 3 million adults using opioids and over 1.9 million adults initiating opioids each year. Between 2013 and 2017, opioid prevalence has slightly increased but incidence has decreased. People without cancer account for the majority of opioid use and are more likely to be initiated on short-acting and weak opioids. Initiation of strong opioids has increased over time, reinforcing concerns about increased use and the harms associated with strong opioids in the community.
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