The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows in the last decade the number of Australians being treated for heroin, or other opioid, addiction has almost doubled.
According to the National Opioid Pharmacotherapy Statistics Annual Data Collection Report for 2008, more than 41,300 people were listed as being on methadone or related detox programs in June last year, as against 24,600 in June 1998.
The report released by the AIHW provides information and statistics about the characteristics of those being treated for opioid drug dependence, the different types of treatments and medication dispensing arrangements.
The author of the report Amber Jefferson says from 2005 to 2007 numbers remained relatively stable at around 39,000 people being treated, but this rose to 41,347 in 2008 and there was an increase in the number clients in 2008 compared with each of the previous three years.
Jefferson says the proportion of male clients has remained the same at about two thirds - of the 41,347 clients being treated nationally, approximately 27,500 were male and as in previous years, about 65% of clients received treatment from a private prescriber and prescribers in the public and corrections sectors also remained at similar levels, 27% and 7% respectively.
Ms Jefferson says over 85% of dosing sites were located in pharmacies and both the number of registered prescribers and the number of dosing point sites increased between 2006 and 2008.
According to the report, about 70% of all clients were receiving methadone and the remainder received buprenorphine or buprenorphine/naloxone and the proportion of clients receiving the combination drug increased between 2006 and 2008.