Majority of Aussie palliative patients receive incorrect opioid dosage: study

CANBERRA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Palliative care patients in Australia regularly receive smaller doses of opioids than they have been prescribed, a study has found.

The report, released by the University of South Australia (UniSA) and a host of other institutions on Monday, found that 57 percent of patients in three New South Wales (NSW) palliative care facilities were either administered an incorrect dosage or missed a dosage altogether.

The rate of errors involving opioids in those facilities was three times higher than in other healthcare settings, such as hospitals, researchers found.

Researchers spent two years examining dosing practise in the facilities, finding that the majority of patients who received an incorrect dose or missed a dose were cancer patients aged in their 70s.

Debra Rowett, a member of UniSA's School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, said that the study highlighted the importance of understanding why the errors occurred.

She said that the practice of underdosing was particularly alarming as it could contribute to a patient's pain.

"Palliative care clinicians have identified that safe use of opioids is a patient safety priority and this study is an important first step in quantifying and identifying opioid errors," Rowett said on Monday.

"The high rate of errors in palliative care environments compared to other healthcare services most likely reflects the higher volume of opioids such as morphine being used for patients to manage their pain in the last stages of their lives."

Of the opioid errors uncovered, 35 percent involved morphine and two thirds were attributed to administration errors. Enditem