While much is known about the prevalence and associated harms of prescription opioid and benzodiazepine misuse, knowledge is still emerging about other prescription drug misuse. More recently the spotlight has been on second generation antipsychotics such as quetiapine, prescription stimulants and pregabalin. This presentation will examine what is currently know about the prevalence, population characteristics and potential reasons why these other drugs may be being misused and what might be done to address this.

About the speaker

Dr Jonathan Brett is a clinical toxicologist and addiction specialist working for St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, clinical director of the Psychiatry and Non-Prescription Drug and Alcohol Unit and a clinical toxicologist with the NSW Poison’s Information Centre. He has fellowships with the Royal Australian College of Physicians in clinical pharmacology, toxicology and addiction medicine. He is a conjoint Associate Professor with St. Vincent’s Clinical School, UNSW and a Senior NHMRC Research Fellow with the Medicines Policy Unit of Centre for Big Data Research in Health, UNSW. He is an editor for the Internal Medicine Journal and a member of the Drug Utilisation Sub-Committee of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. He completed his PhD in pharmacoepidemiology in 2018 with a focus on the use of big data measure the quality use of psychotropics in mental health and has a research interest in psychopharmacology. He currently holds over $1 Million in research funds, including an NHMRC Investigator Grant (CPI – opioid safety in pregnancy), two NHMRC project grants (AI), a NSW Health Translational Research Grant (CI) and three St. Vincent’s Hospital Network Grants (CI).