Psychiatrists are stakeholders in improving access to controlled medicines

Medicines made from substances that are controlled under the international drug control treaties (‘controlled medicines’) are out of reach for the majority of patients around the world. Seya et al (2011) demonstrated that 5.5 billion people (83% of the world’s population) live in countries with little or no access to opioid analgesics, 250 million (4%) have moderate access and only 460 million people (7%) have adequate access. Insufficient data are available for 430 million (7%). If the need for treatment of moderate to severe pain were to be satisfied adequately, the global consumption of strong opioid analgesics would go up from 231 tonnes of morphine-equivalents to 1292 tonnes.