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Health Canada report looks at painkiller prescriptions in Atlantic Canada During the first six months of 2005, more than 92,500 prescriptions were filled for oxycodone-based painkillers, such as OxyContin, at 651 retail pharmacies throughout the four Atlantic provinces. New Brunswick generated 44 per cent of those transactions, and had the highest number of oxycodone prescribers in the region at 133 per 100,000 residents. "It's interesting," said Enid Harrison, spokeswoman for the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. "They weren't identifying it as a problem in their province, specifically." Prince Edward Island accounted for only nine per cent of prescriptions, but the region's least-populous province had the second-highest number of prescribers per capita, with 128 per 100,000 residents. And prescription users in Prince Edward Island also had the highest volume of transactions, averaging 46 each. New Brunswick prescribers averaged 41 each. Newfoundland and Labrador
and Nova Scotia, where the issue made headlines after several deaths were blamed
on oxycodone abuse, accounted for 21 per cent and 27 per cent of the transactions,
respectively. "Even if we knew across the country how many prescriptions are being doled out, it doesn't tell us how many are being used inappropriately," Harrison said. The Health Canada report points out that the results don't take into account provincial health profiles, demographics or variances in pain management protocol or products. "Readers who wish to interpret, extrapolate or benchmark the report's findings should exercise caution," it says. "The outcome of this review of sales transactions cannot be used on its own to determine definitive actions. Its purpose was to provide stakeholders with factual information to contribute to their efforts." Information on oxycodone prescriptions is not readily available from other regions for comparison. "This is the first (such report) we've done at Health Canada," said Carolyn Sexauer, spokeswoman for the department. She said the report was done in response to requests from task forces in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, adding that Health Canada has other initiatives underway, including a guide for health professionals. Harrison lauded the Health Canada report for providing a baseline for Atlantic Canada, but there is no consistent monitoring program across the country. "We're looking for it to actually go beyond that, to a much more sophisticated model for monitoring the use of pharmaceutical drugs."
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Although
it was Newfoundland and Nova Scotia that first raised alarms about
the abuse of so-called "hillbilly heroin" in Atlantic
Canada, it is New Brunswick that accounts for most of the prescriptions
for the highly addictive painkiller oxycodone, according to a new
Health Canada report.|
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FDA |
