Alcohol once again leading cause for drug treatment

A new insight into the growing rates of drug and alcohol treatment in Australia has led to fresh calls for GPs to be better equipped to ‘ensure that the right people are seen at the right time’.
 
Released this month, an annual update to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data shows that in 2023–24, publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment services were used by 131,900 people across Australia.
 
Among those who received publicly funded treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, 42% of treatment episodes were for alcohol, followed by amphetamines (26%), cannabis (16%) and heroin (4%).
 
Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern for older clients and amphetamines were most common for clients aged in their 20s and 30s.
 
Meanwhile, cannabis was the most common principal drug of concern for younger clients, with 60% of clients aged 10–19 receiving treatment for the drug.
 
The rates are up slightly from last year, with around 131,500 people aged 10 and over receiving treatment in 2022–23.
 
But Dr Hester Wilson, Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Addiction Medicine, added that there is also a large number of people seeking support in general practice.
 
‘The bottom line is alcohol is a poison, it’s ubiquitous in our society, and for us as GPs, we’re seeing this, and we are trying to support people,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Of those people that are seeking care, how many of them could have been supported in a general practice setting rather than ending up in the specialist system?
 
‘If we really worked better together, could we actually ensure that the right people are seen at the right time and place by the person that they need to be seen by?
 
‘This is an important issue that we can have real impact on by having conversations with people and flagging what are the safer drinking levels.’
 
The AIHW data also revealed that the number of people aged 10 and over receiving alcohol and other drug treatment rose by 15% between 2014–15 and 2023–24.
 
Among clients who received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, half were aged 20–39 and 61% were male.
 
Conversely, among clients who received support for someone else’s drug use, 49% were aged 30–49 and 43% were female.
 
Two thirds of treatment episodes were provided in a non-residential treatment setting, such as community-based non-government organisations and hospital outpatient services, and 16% were in residential treatment settings.
 
Professor Dan Lubman, Director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre, said the data highlights a gap between demand for support and its availability.
 
‘While it’s encouraging to see more people getting help, it’s concerning that the increase isn’t larger,’ he said.
 
‘While we know about half a million Australians need support for alcohol or drug issues, fewer than 132,000 received it.
 
‘This gap highlights a significant shortfall in our healthcare system.’
 
Research released earlier this year found that in Australia just 30–48% of the population who would seek and benefit from alcohol and other drug help are treated.
 
‘This is a conservative analysis that assumes only 40% of the alcohol and cannabis use disorder population would seek treatment,’ researchers concluded.
 
‘The findings from this analysis highlight the continued significant unmet treatment needs of people with substance use disorders.
 
‘Treatment resources need to be doubled in order to address this unmet treatment population.’
 
However, Dr Wilson said the ‘slow-moving train wreck that is funding for general practice’ is preventing GPs from being able to conduct longer, complex consults with the patients who need it most.
 
‘General practice plays a really important role, but we are being starved of funding and therefore it’s more difficult,’ she said.
 
‘GPs love to do prevention and we love to do chronic disease management, but we’re in a system where we’re not funded to do it, and we’ve got this incentive to do short consultations, so when do you have the chance?
 
‘When do you have the capacity to actually have conversations about alcohol?’
 
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alcohol addition alcohol and other drugs AOD