Use of common opioid painkillers has more than quadrupled in Australia while most poorer countries have almost no access to basic pain relief, says a new report.
The use of the painkillers has doubled worldwide in the last decade, but most of the increase is in high-income Western countries which account for more than 95 per cent of global opioid use.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report, published in the Lancet, calculated the daily use of opioid analgesics such as codeine, morphine and oxycodone in countries and regions globally from 2001 to 2013.
They compared the data against the prevalence of health conditions requiring pain relief and surveyed 214 countries about any impediments to availability of the medications.
Most of the increased use was in high-income Western countries and regions including North America, Western and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
In Australia, use of the medications increased from 3287 doses per day per million (22 million doses annually) to 13,440 doses (106 million doses).
"The ageing populations and greater care for chronic non-cancer pain are likely drivers of increased use in high-income countries," said senior author, Professor Richard Mattick of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW.
The authors said the correct level of opioid use was unclear.
They found the majority of poorer and less-developed nations including Central America and the
Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, East Asia and Eastern Europe had little or no access to opioid pain relief, with little change over the past decade.
"The lack of availability of these medications in low-income countries for the management of cancer pain is a terrible situation causing massive suffering," Professor Mattick said.
More than five and a half billion people are estimated to have little or no access to essential pain relief, with barriers including affordability, lack of training among medical professionals, sourcing problems and onerous regulations.
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