• Drug and alcohol review · Feb 2018

    Attitudes in Australia on the upscheduling of over-the-counter codeine to a prescription-only medication.

    • Jacqui McCoy, Raimondo Bruno, and Suzanne Nielsen.
    • School of Medicine (Psychology), Faculty of Health, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
    • Drug Alcohol Rev. 2018 Feb 1; 37 (2): 257-261.

    Introduction And AimsIn December 2016, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration announced that over-the-counter (OTC) codeine would be available by prescription-only in February 2018. Prior to this announcement, the authors aimed to evaluate attitudes among Australian codeine consumers, pharmacists and general medical practitioners (GP) towards the proposed upscheduling of OTC codeine.Design And MethodsPublic Therapeutic Goods Administration submissions on codeine upscheduling were assessed, and a brief questionnaire was developed to assess the common issues raised. Participants (354 codeine consumers; 220 pharmacists; 120 GPs) completed a web-based questionnaire. Comparisons of attitudes on specific statements related to codeine upscheduling were made between consumers who were in support and those who opposed the proposal and between pharmacists and GPs. Regression models were conducted to examine correlates of attitudes towards codeine restriction.ResultsMost consumer, pharmacist and a third of GP respondents opposed the upscheduling of codeine. Consumers, on average, questioned whether the proposed intervention would address the intended targets of minimising codeine-related side effects and risk of codeine dependence. Like consumers, pharmacists indicated concern around whether codeine restriction would address concerns of associated harm and dependence, as well as the burden regular GP appointments would create in terms of finances for consumers and time for GPs. GPs themselves, did not support these views.Discussion And ConclusionsConsumer responses identify key targets for educational campaigns when codeine is rescheduled, particularly around effective alternatives to OTC codeine. Additionally, contrasting views of pharmacists and GPs reinforce the importance of pharmacovigilance in evaluating the effectiveness of codeine restriction, once implemented. [McCoy J, Bruno R, Nielsen S. Attitudes in Australia on the upscheduling of over-the-counter codeine to a prescription-only medication. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;00:000-000].© 2017 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.