News

The National Alcohol and Drug Knowledgebase (NADK) has been expanded by NCETA and now includes a Pharmaceuticals Section to accompany the existing Alcohol, Cannabis and Methamphetamine Sections. The NADK is a comprehensive one-stop shop of information about AOD use. Globally, more than 25,000 people accessed the NADK in the past year.

There is growing recognition that while pharmaceutical drugs are very valuable medicines there is nevertheless concern about their misuse and associated harms and the new Section in the NADK explores these concerns.

The newly released Pharmaceutical Section presents accurate and easy-to-understand information using a series of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and infographics and provides timely advice to inform policy and service provision responses. It includes:

• General information on pharmaceutical drugs
• Information about Australians’ attitudes towards pharmaceutical drugs
• Data on:
  • Patterns of use amongst the general Australian population and young people
  • Pharmaceutical drug use and employment
  • Harms associated with pharmaceutical drug use
  • Information on the provision of medical / psychosocial treatment for pharmaceutical drug use.

In developing the Pharmaceutical Section of the NADK, NCETA undertook secondary analyses and / or data extractions of the following datasets:

• 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey
• National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program
• 2016-17 National Hospital Morbidity Database

• 2016-17 Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Dataset
• 2017 Australian Secondary Students’ Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) Survey

To view the new Pharmaceutical Section of the NADK click here.