Overseas experience need not portend the future of prescription drug misuse in Australia
Dispensing data indicate that pregabalin prescribing in Australia is rising rapidly, and the numbers of self‐poisonings and deaths are also increasing.1 This mirrors the European and North American experience of escalating misuse and harms.2,3 Although Australian guidelines recommend it only as second line treatment for neuropathic pain,4 pregabalin is now the seventh most expensive drug in terms of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) expenditure.5
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