Refer to the Data tables for more information.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Almost half of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients receiving opioid pharmacotherapy treatment were treated with methadone.
On a snapshot day in June 2021, there were 5,715 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients receiving pharmacotherapy treatment in Australia (excluding data for Queensland) (Table S9). This represents 12% of all clients and is a rate of 90 clients per 10,000 Indigenous Australians.
Of those Indigenous Australian clients whose pharmacotherapy drug type was reported (82% or 4,679 clients), almost half (48% or 2,267 clients) were treated with methadone in 2021 (excluding data for Queensland and Victoria). The remaining Indigenous Australian clients were treated with buprenorphine (43% or 2,026 clients), buprenorphine-naloxone (7% or 305 clients) or buprenorphine LAI (2% or 81 clients). Victoria provides the total number of clients receiving opioid pharmacotherapy but does not provide pharmacotherapy drug type by Indigenous status (Table S9).
From 2016 to 2021, the proportion of Indigenous clients receiving treatment with:
- Methadone fell from around 7 in 10 clients (67% or 2,238 clients) to 5 in 10 (48%).
- Buprenorphine doubled from around 2 in 10 clients (22% or 728 clients) to 4 in 10 (43%).
- Buprenorphine-naloxone fluctuated slightly, ranging from 7% to 13% of Indigenous clients across selected states/territories in a given year.
In 2021, Victoria had the highest rate of Indigenous opioid pharmacotherapy clients (159 clients per 10,000 Indigenous Australians, or 1,036 clients) followed by New South Wales (133 clients per 10,000 Indigenous Australians, or 3,880 clients). The Northern Territory had the lowest rate of Indigenous clients (6 clients per 10,000 Indigenous Australians, or 44 clients) (Table S9). Refer to the Technical notes for more information on rates of Indigenous clients in 2021.
What opioid pharmacotherapy treatments did clients receive?
Methadone continued to be the most commonly prescribed opioid pharmacotherapy drug, but the proportion of pharmacotherapy clients receiving buprenorphine is rising.
On a snapshot day in 2021, around 6 in 10 clients (58% or 27,732 clients) received methadone as pharmacotherapy treatment (excluding data for Queensland). A further 23% (10,991 clients) received buprenorphine (Table S4). The number of clients receiving buprenorphine may be inflated, as New South Wales includes clients receiving buprenorphine-naloxone or buprenorphine LAI in the number of clients receiving buprenorphine.
The proportion of clients receiving each of the pharmacotherapies varies across states and territories (Figure CLIENTS5; Table S4). This may be driven by jurisdictional differences in pharmacotherapy guidelines. In 2021:
- Methadone was the most common pharmacotherapy drug in most jurisdictions, with the exception of Tasmania and the Northern Territory. The Australian Capital Territory and Victoria had the highest proportion of clients receiving methadone (67% and 63% of clients, respectively).
- Buprenorphine-naloxone was the most common pharmacotherapy drug in Tasmania and the Northern Territory (39% and 37% of clients, respectively) (Figure CLIENTS5; Table S4). Buprenorphine-naloxone is the default treatment drug for the main pharmacotherapy program in the Northern Territory (Table S4).