High levels of prescription opioid use in Canada is cause for concern. Many cough and cold prescription products contain codeine, hydrocodone or normethadone and are available in Canada. Although these products, like opioids, may be misused and abused, no current data are available to quantify the prevalence/incidence of abuse, misuse, addiction, overdose and dependence in children associated with opioids in different formulations.
We aim to identify physician’s prescribing patterns and patients’ use patterns of prescribed cough and cold opioid-containing medicines (CCOMs) in pediatrics. We propose to bring together data from the Canadian Mother-Child Cohort Active Surveillance Initiative funded by DSEN/HC, which includes data from five provinces – Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta to answer this query. The five provincial birth cohorts that we intend to align will be developed by linking to provincial health care administrative databases. CCOMs considered will be fentanyl, codeine, hydrocodone, normethadone, dextromethorphan alone or in combination forms (i.e. acetaminophen and codeine, etc.) dispensed as pills, syrups, oral formulations or elixirs.
This section will be updated as our study progresses.
For more information, contact: Autumn Neville, Research Coordinator. [email protected]
This research is funded by CIHR-DSEN
Lead investigator: Dr. Anick Berard and Dr. Sasha Bernatsky
Query 19-06 raised by Health Canada, Opioids Scientific Section – Marketed Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices Bureau (MPB) Marketed Health Products Directorate (MHPD)