Research finds oxycodone consumption halved after changes to prescription guidelines
The amount of oxycodone Australians are using has almost halved after national changes to packaging and prescription rules were brought in, a new study detecting opioid levels in wastewater has found. "Oxycodone use decreased nationally from 120 milligrams to 65mg a day per 1,000 people from August 2019 to December 2020," Dr Verhagen said. Dr Verhagen said the study also monitored fentanyl, and heroin, finding the consumption of fentanyl followed a similar trend to oxycodone, while heroin fluctuated over the same time period. "We can't really directly link a single policy change to this decrease, but it looks like that the combination of these changes has resulted in a national decrease in oxycodone use in the community," Dr Verhagen said. Since 2018, the number of unintentional opioid-related deaths has increased 15.9 per cent, while the number of patients dispensed opioids decreased 13.5 per cent in the same period, the report said.
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