External link
Further information and advice about Medication assisted treatment for opioid dependence (MATOD)
Drug and Alcohol Clinical Advisory Service (DACAS)
DACAS provides a telephone and email service for South Australian health professionals seeking clinical information and clarification around clinical procedures, guidelines and evidence-based practice.
Telephone: (08) 7087 1742 — 24 hours 7 days/week including public holidays or email your enquiry to: HealthDACASEnquiries@sa.gov.au.
Out of these hours, medically urgent calls from a hospital based Medical Consultant or country hospital medical officer/GP will always receive a response.
This service does not provide proxy medical cover and cannot assume responsibility for direct patient care.
Office hours
- Drugs of Dependence Unit telephone 1300 652 584 (office hours)
Provides advice on prescribing from a regulatory view point.
Other services
- Alcohol and Drug Information Service (ADIS) telephone 1300 13 1340
any day between 8.30 am and 10.00 pm for information, counselling and referral (South Australian callers - local call fee).
Clinical guidelines
- The National Guidelines for Medication-Assisted Treatment of Opioid Dependence covers the use of methadone, buprenorphine, buprenorphine/naloxone and naltrexone. Information on the assessment of opioid withdrawal, including the Subjective Opiate Withdrawal Scale (SOWS), the Objective Opiate Withdrawal Scale (OOWS) and the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS) is included in Appendix 2.
- National clinical guidelines for the management of drug use during pregnancy, birth and the early development years of the newborn (PDF 584KB). Maintaining or initiating MATOD is the preferred approach to management of opioid dependence in pregnancy. DASSA should be contacted for advice and/or management if your opioid dependent patient is pregnant.
- Interim Brief clinical guidelines for the use of depot buprenorphine (Buvidal® and Sublocade®) in the treatment of opioid dependence for South Australian Community MATOD prescribers (PDF 837KB) are to be used in conjunction with the full Product Information, Consumer Information materials and demonstration videos provided by each of the depot BPN manufacturers. These resources and additional information are available online in the module 'Theory — Depot Buprenorphine — SA' hosted by Inkwire.
- NSW Long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) for opioid dependence treatment. Although these guidelines were written for NSW, most of the clinical information is applicable to a South Australian context.