Medicines with codeine: online resources for GPs
From February 2018 all medicines containing codeine will require a prescription, following the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) decision. The AMA supports the TGA in making decisions about medicines scheduling, as reported in a previous issue of GPNN.
For GPs with patients who regularly use over-the-counter medicines with codeine for pain management there is information available to help you discuss the different options. Alternative pain relief through self-management, non-medicine therapies or different prescription medicines can be effective. A prescriber toolkit has been prepared by Scriptwise that contains useful information for GPs.