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Non-medical prescription opioid injection in a sample of Australians who regularly inject drugs: Are there differences by gender and age?

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Author: Seraina Agramunt , Simon Lenton

Resource Type: Drug Trends Bulletins

The Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) is a national drug monitoring system intended to identify emerging trends of local and national concern in illicit drug markets, and form part of Drug Trends.  

Non-medical prescription opioid use refers to the use of a pharmaceutical opioid outside the bounds of a doctor’s prescription (e.g., using more than prescribed or via a route of administration other than as prescribed).  

In previous work, we investigated gender differences in injecting risk behaviours and injection-related health problems in a sample of people residing in Perth, Western Australia, who inject drugs. This bulletin builds on that by i) examining the gender and age differences in injecting non-prescribed opioids among a recent group of people who inject drugs surveyed in Australia in 2021, and ii) identifying sociodemographic and mental health factors associated with injecting non-prescribed opioids.