ArticleDrug and alcohol review2025
Unmet treatment need: The size of the gap for alcohol and other drugs in Australia.
Article in Drug and alcohol review, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Age period cohort trends in alcohol treatment episodes across Australia from 2003 to 2022.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Health services and digital technologies used for mental health among a national cross-sectional sample of young people in Australia 2020-2022: Patterns and correlates within geographic regions.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Using Routinely Collected Data From the Network of Alcohol and Other Drugs Agencies Database to Evaluate the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Trends in Service Delivery in Outpatient Non-Government Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Observational
- Australian Clients' Perspectives on Accessing Alcohol and Other Drug Counselling via Telehealth: A Qualitative Study.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- "I've Never Seen It as a Real Problem": Experiences of Access to Care for People Who Use Methamphetamine.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Personalizing ecological momentary intervention for substance use disorders through data-driven decision rules.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Impact of physical activity on sleep in adults recovering from substance use disorders: a protocol for an N-of-1 observational study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Unmet treatment need: The size of the gap for alcohol and other drugs in Australia.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Article
- Digital health interventions for people who use methamphetamine: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAssessing unmet demand for alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment requires accurately counting those in treatment and determining those in need of treatment. Using updated epidemiological and treatment data, this study sought to provide an updated estimate of the unmet demand for AOD treatment in Australia.
methodsAustralian prevalence rates for alcohol, cannabis, methamphetamine and opioid use disorders were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease and research studies. The estimated proportion of people who would likely not seek or need treatment were subtracted from the diagnosed population. The number of people receiving treatment was estimated using AOD treatment databases and previous research.
resultsAn estimated 752,812 to 1,291,119 people met criteria for a substance use disorder in Australia in 2023. Removing the proportion of people who would not need or seek treatment resulted in between 406,697 and 668,497 people as the potential treatment population. The number of people who received treatment in Australia was estimated at 198,731 people. The unmet demand for AOD treatment was estimated to be between 207,966 and 469,767 in 2023. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsIn Australia, we only treat between 30% and 48% of the population who would seek and benefit from AOD treatment. This is a conservative analysis that assumes only 40% of the alcohol and cannabis use disorder population would seek treatment. The findings from this analysis highlight the continued significant unmet treatment needs of people with substance use disorders. Treatment resources need to be doubled in order to address this unmet treatment population.
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Registered trials
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