By Rachel Clun
People being treated for opioid addiction risk relapsing without changes in their support and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Royal Australasian College of Physicians spokesman and president-elect of the Chapter of Addiction Medicine Professor Nicholas Lintzeris said the outbreak has had a huge impact on the 50,000 patients who use methadone or buprenorphine as treatment for their opioid dependence.
“Traditionally that usually meant patients got to a clinic, pharmacy or hospital, four, five, six, seven days a week in some cases,” he said.
“That might be fine under normal circumstances but in the context of COVID-19 that’s a model that doesn’t really work that well.”
But with other traditional support systems including alcoholics or narcotics anonymous and residential rehabilitation centres less accessible due to the outbreak, Professor Lintzeris said more people were also turning to medically assisted treatment for help.
“We’re seeing quite a lot of people now, there has been quite a bit of influx of people seeking treatment for opioid problems,” he said.
Leading health and consumer groups including the RACP, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the Australian Injecting and the Illicit Drug Users League have endorsed new national clinical guidelines to help treat these patients in a time when face-to-face services are limited.
The guidelines include increased access to take-home doses of medication to reduce the number of trips to the chemist, more patient and caregiver education around drug safety, better access to the opioid antidote naloxone, and increased support through telehealth.
Chief executive officer of the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League Melanie Walker said the guidelines would help people comply with social distancing requirements, but also reassures them their treatment was still available.
“One concern shared by all is that access to drug treatment isn't severely affected by COVID-19,” she said.
“Clinicians are trying really hard to ensure their patients are looked after in this time.”
Professor Lintzeris said while options like increased take-home doses and telehealth won’t work for every patient, it was vital to have more treatment options.
“It’s been really important we were able to ensure that treatment was able to continue and that we were able to do it safely, and hopefully we can continue this until social distancing rules have been relaxed,” he said.
On Thursday evening, the federal government boosted funding to online drug and alcohol services to help them meet a spike in demand for help during the pandemic.
But Ms Walker said the demand for help would continue rising once the crisis has passed.
“There will be people who have fallen off treatment, there will be people who have lost their jobs, so what we’re going to see is a rising demand for drug treatment at the end of the COVID crisis,” she said.
“What will be really important is that drug and alcohol services are resourced to meet the demand.”