Prescription for Codeine Required in 2018

After the 1st of February 2018, all medicines containing codeine will no longer be available from pharmacies. The reasoning behind this decision has been stated as the potential risk of codeine tolerance, dependence, poisoning and even death (in high doses).  

Codeine is an opioid drug which is similar to morphine, with a high health risk of developing tolerance or physical dependence. When tolerance occurs, codeine becomes less effective, and the body needs higher doses to create the same effect. Once dependence has occurred, discontinuing use of codeine can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as head and muscle aches, insomnia, diarrhea, mood swings and nausea. Because some of these symptoms feel similar to the symptoms over-the-counter codeine products are used to treat, people can misjudge and continue taking codeine products in higher or longer doses.

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Chronic Pain has Family Connections

Startling new science has discovered that genes can greatly increase individual’s risk of developing chronic pain.

Professor Andrew McIntosh is Professor of Biological Psychiatry at University of Edinburgh led a team that used data from 23,960 persons in the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study, and 112,151 individuals from the United Kingdom Biobank.

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Indigenous, Poorer and Rural Suffer More Amputation

Amputations are well known for causing chronic pain, with the majority of amputees experiencing some form of ongoing pain.

In Australia, some health gains have been made leading to rates of limb amputations stabilising as a result of early intervention of diabetes and peripheral cardiovascular disease.

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Back Pain Shortens Life Span

Back pain is not confined to localised aches and pains but could lead to early death.

Associate Professor Paulo Ferreira of University of Sydney has found that people with a history of back pain had a substantially higher chance of dying prematurely compared to others.

In research that scrutinised 4,000 twins in Denmark, researchers examined whether there was any link between back (and/or neck) pain and mortality. This research is important for showing the life-limiting effects of ongoing pain on the whole body.

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