addiction
MedsASSIST tops 4 million transactions
More than four million transactions have now been recorded in MedsASSIST, the Pharmacy Guild says. As of yesterday (21 November) the codeine real-time recording and monitoring system had clocked up …
Don’t implement real-time monitoring alone: expert
A proposed real-time monitoring system might do more harm than good if it’s not backed up by other measures, an addiction expert has told MJA InSight. Professor Nick Lintzeris, Clinical …
Upschedule codeine to reduce misuse: Canadian pharmacist
Making it prescription-only is likely the best way to address misuse and abuse in both Canada and Australia, he argues Jesse MacKinnon, who has just published an article about OTC codeine …
‘Codeine road trips’ less likely, but there’s still a way to go
The number of stories such as the tale of “Britney,” who reportedly goes on cross-border trips to buy codeine, are likely to have plummeted since the introduction of MedsASSIST, stakeholders …
Clinical tips: pain and addiction
Pharmacists need to play a key role in helping people with ongoing pain to get assistance, write Dr Esther Lau, Prof Lisa Nissen and Tony Hall You know that awful …
Research Roundup
Debbie Rigby rounds up the latest research news Comparison of the Male Osteoporosis Risk Estimation Score (MORES) With FRAX in Identifying Men at Risk for Osteoporosis A comparison of the …
Aussies ignorant on opioid addiction, but not pharmacists
A huge proportion of Australians believe negative stereotypes about people with opioid addictions, but pharmacists are, for the most part, a significant exception. So says Bee Ismail, CEO of ScriptWise, …
“I was addicted to them. I was desperate.”
A NSW doctor fooled colleagues and pharmacists with falsified scripts for OxyContin that ended up totalling 2,856 tablets The 34-year-old doctor had been deregistered for at least three years after …
Suspended after net pharmacy ‘infiltrated by addicts’
A British pharmacist has been suspended for 12 months and his wife given a warning after an internet pharmacy business was allowed to be “infiltrated by addicts” seeking Codeine Linctus. …
Pharmacists lack confidence in supplying naloxone
They feel the need for more training, but downscheduling champion Angelo Pricolo says this shouldn’t be an issue An online survey of nearly 600 Australian pharmacists run by the National …
Four reasons codeine should be S4 – but Guild disagrees
A pain specialist and researcher says there’s no evidence of benefit from current codeine-containing OTC products – and that “we can’t have a drug of abuse available over the counter”. …
Naloxone progress not a let-down: Pricolo
Angelo Pricolo, the Brunswick pharmacist who successfully applied to the TGA to have the life-saving medicine naloxone downscheduled to S3, has expressed surprise at an ABC story claiming that the …