chronic pain
Pain · 2012–2025
Every decision
| Medicine | Meeting | Outcome | Consumer input |
|---|---|---|---|
| methadone Chronic severe disabling pain and severe disabling pain in patients who have failed alternative pain management therapies and require daily continuous… | Jul 2025 | Recommended with restriction | 3 individuals |
| Secondary annual review of ongoing treatment with PBS subsidised opioid medications for non-palliative patients with chronic pain who have received combined… | Dec 2020 | Not recommended | no section in document |
| oxycodone hydrochloride + naloxone hydrochloride Chronic severe disabling pain unresponsive to non-narcotic analgesics. Three additional strengths (2.5 mg/1.25 mg, 15 mg/7.5 mg, and 30 mg/15 mg) sought to… | Nov 2015 | Recommended | no section in document |
| oxycodone Chronic pain management requiring opioid therapy in patients for whom modified-release oxycodone is indicated. | Nov 2014 | Noted | 3 individuals Pharmaceutical Society of Australia · Australian Pain Society · Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia |
| tapentadol Treatment of chronic severe disabling pain not responding to non-narcotic analgesics. | Nov 2013 | Recommended with restriction | unclear |
| tapentadol Chronic severe disabling pain not responding to non-narcotic analgesics. | Mar 2012 | Not recommended | unclear |
Who spoke
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia · Australian Pain Society · Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia
What the PBS pays
$341M in government benefit over 2024–25, across 9,555,207 services.
This is spend on the medicines considered for this condition, not spend on the disease. A medicine used for several conditions is counted in full under each, so figures across conditions add to more than national PBS expenditure.
| Medicine | Government benefit |
|---|---|
| oxycodone hydrochloride + naloxone hydrochloride | $163.8M |
| oxycodone | $117.7M |
| tapentadol | $49.9M |
| methadone | $9.6M |
Conditions are classified by a language model from the indication text of each submission, so an individual label here can be wrong. Consumer input is read from the document's own consumer comments section: 2 of 4 decisions since 2014 carried some. Silence means no comment reached the committee through that facility, not that nobody was affected. More on how this was built.