In Australia, the abuse of potent pharmaceutical opioids such as oxycodone results in three fatalities and about 150 hospital admissions per day.
That exceeds the number of people murdered by illicit opiates like heroin.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration took drastic measures to control the drug’s prescription and packaging four years ago in an attempt to halt the worrying trend.
The effectiveness of the TGA’s actions has now been demonstrated by a new six-year investigation of Australia’s wastewaters, which shows that medication usage has nearly decreased in half.
In Australia, oxycodone is classified as a schedule 8 medication, which means that a chemist must have a prescription to dispense it and that there are stringent guidelines for its storage and distribution.
It is frequently sold under the brand names Endone, Oxynorm, and Oxycontin.
“Although it can be highly beneficial in relieving pain, there is a possibility of addiction and abuse,” stated Dr. Rory Verhagen, the University of Queensland researcher who conducted the study.
Over the course of six years, from 2017 to 2023, a group of researchers from the University of Queensland examined wastewater from 50 treatment facilities around the nation.
It is estimated that about half of Australia’s population was represented in the nearly 7000 wastewater samples that were gathered.
The use of oxycodone fell by 45% over a 15-month period, from August 2019 to December 2020, from 120 milligrammes per day per 1000 people to 65 milligrammes, according to the study.
“This drop coincided with changes to prescribing guidelines in 2019 and packaging changes from 2020,” Verhagen told.
It represents a significant change from prior years, when Australia had a high increase in oxycodone use at the same time that the US was experiencing an opioid epidemic that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Over three million Australians filled at least one prescription for opioids in 2016, with oxycodone being the most often prescribed drug.
The amount of oxycodone used increased during the next few years, more than doubling to 120 milligrammes per day by August 2019 from 78 milligrammes per day per 1000 persons in the previous year.
2019 saw the Therapeutic Goods Administration implement stricter recommendations on prescription practices for medical providers.
In February 2020, the package sizes were lowered from 20 pills to 10 and the label was amended with cautions.
The investigation of wastewater also looked at the use of heroin and fentanyl, two other opioids.
Over the course of the six years, heroin use varied, but fentanyl’s use declined significantly starting in 2019 and followed a similar pattern to that of oxycodone.
Today, Addiction published the research’s complete findings.
