Understanding the rates and characteristics of Victorian emergency department attendances for commonly used pharmaceutical opioids

Pharmaceutical opioids are implicated in 70% of Australia’s opioid-related mortality. Also, pharmaceutical opioid related Emergency Department (ED) presentations have been increasing in Victoria in recent years. However, there have been studies which consider the relative contribution of different pharmaceutical opioids to this harm.

This study will examine Emergency Department presentations related to a pharmaceutical opioid overdose/poisoning in Victoria. This study will capture a ten-year period (2009-2019) and will examine ED presentations for nine commonly prescribed pharmaceutical opioids (buprenorphine, codeine, fentanyl, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, oxycodone-naloxone, tapentadol, tramadol). We will calculate supply-adjusted rates of ED presentations for each opioid, to see how rates of harm vary across opioids. We will also compare demographic and clinical characteristics, such as severity of presentation, across opioid types.

Further information on this project is available in the study protocol.

Selected related work includes:

• Comparing extramedical opioid-related ambulance attendances across nine pharmaceutical opioid types (project page).
• Victorian pharmaceutical opioid-related emergency department presentations and hospital admissions 2008-2018 (Hazard 86).
• Victorian trends in pharmaceutical-opioid and heroin-related ambulance attendances and ED presentations, 2012-2018 (paper)