THE rate of opioid medicines dispensed increased by 5% between 2013 and 2017, according to the third Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation which was formally released this morning.
Designed to reveal trends in public health that require attention, the Atlas is produced on an annual basis by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare in partnership with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
In this edition, the rise in opiod medication use is one of the leading trends revealed.
PBS data showed 15.5 million prescriptions for opioid medicines were filled between 2016 and 2017.
During 2016 to 2017 there were 58,595 prescriptions dispensed per 100,000 people, representing an increase from 2013-14, when it was 55,900 prescriptions per 100,000.
More than twice as many people died from overdose associated with an opioid medicine compared to those who died from an overdose of heroin (2,145 compared with 985) between 2011 and 2015.
The report reinforces the growing concern that opioids are being prescribed beyond the acute pain period and for chronic non-cancer pain, despite little evidence to show any benefit of long term use, said Painaustralia CEO Carol Bennett.
"We need better awareness among consumers and doctors about pain management treatment options -- and we need to ensure those options exist," Bennett said.
The Atlas highlighted high rates of antibiotic dispensing for children aged 0-9 years, with overall dispensing rates triple those in some similar countries.
A more detailed exploration of data on antipsychotics, ADHD drugs and antimicrobials will be published in 2019, the Commission said.
See safetyandquality.gov.au.
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