This is a copy of the presentation made by Louisa Degenhardt at the 2014 NDARC Annual Research Symposium in Session One.
There has been a recent increase in the prescribing of pharmaceutical opioids in Australia which has led to increasing professional and public concern about the use and harms that may be related to such use. Despite this, there is very little known about the magnitude of risk for adverse events. Previous Australian research has had limited duration (~ 12 weeks) and/or have not examined aberrant drug use behaviours. The Pain and Opioids in Treatment (POINT) study commenced in 2012 and is the first Australian study to examine the patterns of prescribing for individual patients, and the outcomes for these patients in the longer term. This presentation covers baseline data from the 1,514 chronic pain patients who are taking part in the study, including:
1. The socio-demographic, physical and mental health profile of the cohort at baseline
2. Pharmaceutical opioid use, non-adherence, and opioid use disorders in the cohort