Patterns, trends and determinants of medical opioid utilization in Canada 2005–2020: characterizing an era of intensive rise and fall

BACKGROUND: Into the 21st century, the conflation of high rates of chronic pain, systemic gaps in treatment availability and access, and the arrival of potent new opioid medications (e.g., slow-release oxycodone) facilitated strong increases in medical opioid dispensing in Canada. These persisted until post-2010 alongside rising opioid-related adverse (e.g., morbidity/mortality) outcomes. We examine patterns, trends and determinants of opioid dispensing in Canada, and specifically its 10 provinces, for the years 2005–2020. METHODS: Raw data on prescription opioid dispensing were obtained from a large national community-based pharmacy database (IQVIA/Compuscript), converted into Defined-Daily-Doses/1,000 population/day for ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ opioid categories per standard methods. Dispensing by opioid category and formulations by province/year was assessed descriptively; regression analysis was applied to examine possible segmentation of over-time strong opioid dispensing. RESULTS: All provinces reported starkly increasing strong opioid dispensing peaking 2011–2016, and subsequent marked declines. About half reported lower strong opioid dispensing in 2020 compared to 2005, with continuous inter-provincial differences of > 100 %; weak opioids also declined post-2011/12. Segmented regression suggests breakpoints for strong opioids in 2011/12 and 2015/16, coinciding with main interventions (e.g., selective opioid delisting, new prescribing guidelines) towards more restrictive opioid utilization control. CONCLUSIONS: We characterized an era of marked rise and fall, while featuring stark inter-provincial heterogeneity in opioid dispensing in Canada. While little evidence for improvements in pain care outcomes exists, the starkly inverting opioid utilization have been associated with extensive population-level harms (e.g., misuse, morbidity, mortality) over-time. This national case study raises fundamental questions for opioid-related health policy and practice.