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North America is the region with the world's highest prescription opioid (PO) use. Non-medical use of prescription opioids and PO-related morbidity and mortality have strongly increased in the US in recent years. It is assumed that similar trends are occurring in Canada, but there is less empirical evidence to support this. Treatment demand for problematic PO use is an important indicator of PO-related morbidity.

Levels and changes related to the caseload of PO-related treatment admissions were assessed using system-level data from the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Information System (DATIS), the reporting system for publicly funded addiction treatment services in the province of Ontario (Canada) for the period April 2004–March 2009 (n=500,217). In addition, basic socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of PO-related treatment admissions in the final year of study (n=10,125 …