Low prescription rates of alcohol relapse prevention medicines to Australian First Nations peoples

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-07-10 03:00

Australia; NSW; VIC; SA; WA

First Nations Australians with alcohol dependency are rarely prescribed medications that can help prevent alcohol relapse, according to new data. During a 12-month study of 52,678 patients attending 22 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, the researchers found that of the 1.6% of patients who were ‘likely dependent’ on alcohol, only 3.4% received prescriptions for these medicines. The authors say the low prescription rate of relapse prevention medicines in the study could be due to a range of factors, including the under-detection of dependence, GPs not offering patients a prescription to eligible patients or patients declining this treatment.

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Journal/
conference: Drug and Alcohol Review

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Sydney, Australian Catholic University, Curtin University, Burnet Institute, La Trobe University, The University of Adelaide

Funder: This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council through a Project Grant (APP1105339), the Centre of Research Excellence in Indigenous Health and Alcohol (APP1117198) and a Practitioner Fellowship for KC (APP1117582). Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Sydney, as part of the Wiley - The University of Sydney agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.

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