Opioid dependence in Scotland remains high but largely stable, study shows

Apr 17 2024University of Bristol Opioid dependence in Scotland remains high but largely stable, according to a new University of Bristol-led analysis published in Addiction today and by Public Health Scotland. The study is the first to estimate the number of people dependent on opioid drugs , and who are in or could benefit from drug treatment, among Scotland's population since 2015/2016 estimates were published.

To predict how many people aged 15 to 64 years old are opioid dependent, researchers from Bristol's National Institute for Health and Care Research Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation applied a statistical modelling technique using data from Public Health Scotland's Scottish Public Health Drug Linkage Programme, including information on people in drug treatment called opioid agonist treatment and data on opioid-related mortality and hospital admissions.

While there was weak evidence of a small reduction in the total number of people with opioid dependence since 2014/15, the extent of any change was estimated to be small . There was evidence that the population of people with opioid dependence were ageing, with estimates of the number of people aged 15 to 34 years old reducing by 5,100 and the number aged 50 to 64 years old increasing by 2,800 between 2014/15 and 2019/20.

Dr Hayley Jones, Associate Professor in Medical Statistics in the Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences , lead author and developer of the method used in Scotland, said: "This is the first time that trends in the prevalence of people with opioid dependence have been produced in Scotland, showing the value of and making the most of the high-quality linked data sets that are available there.

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