<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Codeine, a weak opiate, requires increased pharmacovigilance relating to availability, heterogeneous nature of misuse, dependence and associated harm. A scoping review of literature on codeine was conducted using Arksey &amp; O’Malley’s framework (1). Databases searched included PubMed, EBSCO Host, Science Direct, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane library and Medline from 1994 to 2014. Follow-up search strategies involved hand searching and searching of pharmaceutical, health, medical and drug related websites. Initial zscreening identified 3,105 articles with 475 meeting the inclusion criteria. Eight broad categories organised the literature, data charting and qualitative synthesis. This paper presents implications for practice and makes recommendations to address these issues. Themes identified relate to raising public and practitioner awareness, risk management, dispensing practices and monitoring and surveillance of codeine. Evidence to inform law enforcement, drug surveillance, public health initiatives, harm reduction approaches, pharmacy, clinical and treatment practices is warranted.</p></abstract>

Codeine, a weak opiate, requires increased pharmacovigilance relating to availability, heterogeneous nature of misuse, dependence and associated harm. A scoping review of literature on codeine was conducted using Arksey & O’Malley’s framework (1). Databases searched included PubMed, EBSCO Host, Science Direct, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane library and Medline from 1994 to 2014. Follow-up search strategies involved hand searching and searching of pharmaceutical, health, medical and drug related websites. Initial zscreening identified 3,105 articles with 475 meeting the inclusion criteria. Eight broad categories organised the literature, data charting and qualitative synthesis. This paper presents implications for practice and makes recommendations to address these issues. Themes identified relate to raising public and practitioner awareness, risk management, dispensing practices and monitoring and surveillance of codeine. Evidence to inform law enforcement, drug surveillance, public health initiatives, harm reduction approaches, pharmacy, clinical and treatment practices is warranted.

Practice implications and recommendations for managing codeine misuse and dependence

School of Health Sciences Waterford Institute of Technology Waterford, Ireland

Kings College London, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, London, United Kingdom

School of Health Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland

H. I. Weldrick Ltd, Doncaster United Kingdom

Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa

Acta Pharmaceutica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Codeine, a weak opiate, requires increased pharmacovigilance relating to availability, heterogeneous nature of misuse, dependence and associated harm. A...

Practice implications and recommendations for managing codeine misuse and dependence

Published Online: Dec 17, 2015

Page range: 351 - 364

Accepted: Oct 14, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/acph-2015-0040

Keywords
codeine, over the counter, misuse, dependence, policy

© by Marie-Claire Van Hout

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Practice implications and recommendations for managing codeine misuse and dependence

Published Online: Dec 17, 2015

Page range: 351 - 364

Accepted: Oct 14, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/acph-2015-0040

Keywordscodeine, over the counter, misuse, dependence, policy

© by Marie-Claire Van Hout

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
codeine, over the counter, misuse, dependence, policy