Klin Farmakol Farm. 2012;26(1):11-13

Comparison of trends in opioid consumption in Slovakia and Czech Republic

Roman Hudec¹, Milan Kriška¹, Lýdia Božeková¹, Viliam Foltán², Viera Kristová¹

¹ Ústav farmakológie a klinickej farmakológie LF UK, Bratislava

² Katedra organizácie a riadenia farmácie FaF UK, Bratislava

Objective: To assess trends in consumption of strong and weak opioid analgesics during the first decade of the 21st century.

Methods: Data were collected from the State Institute for Drug Control in Slovakia. Evaluation was done using the methodology of

defined daily doses per 1000 inhabitants per day. The data obtained were compared with those from the Czech State Institute for Drug

Control and also comparison with statistics from Norway was done.

Resuts: Slovakia has several times higher consumption of strong opioids when compared with the Czech Republic. When evaluating the

consumption of strong opioids in particular, Norway is clearly dominant. Consumption of all the opioids observed is increasing except

a relatively stable consumption of buprenorphine in Slovakia and a decrease in morphine consumption in all the countries.

Conclusions: We hope that these increasing trends will continue. Because we cannot say that there is less pain.

Keywords: consumption, strong opioids, weak opioids, Slovakia, Czech Republic

Published: April 24, 2012  Show citation