Postdoctoral researcher Gabriela Rolová from SERAF and Charles University, together with colleagues from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, University of Stavanger and Stavanger University Hospital, University of Copenhagen and Rigshospitalet, and the NEPI Foundation, has taken a closer look at opioid analgesic prescribing in the Scandinavian countries.
Opioid painkillers are essential medicines for the short-term treatment of moderate to severe pain, especially after surgery or in cancer care. However, in recent years, several European countries have seen a rise in use, along with more overdose deaths, raising concerns about overprescribing, too high rates of long-term use, and potential harm.
Our study, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, compared how Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have prescribed opioids over the past decade using national dispensing data. The study highlights that although these countries share similar healthcare systems and challenges, their prescription patterns for opioids have followed very different trajectories.
Opioid use was more widespread in Norway, with a higher proportion of the population receiving prescriptions overall, whereas Denmark had the highest volumes dispensed. Since 2010, both Denmark and Sweden have reduced the number of people receiving opioids, while use of stronger opioids such as oxycodone and morphine has increased. Norway, by contrast, maintained a relatively stable prevalence of users, with a greater reliance on weaker opioids such as codeine and tramadol. In the article, we discuss how developments in national policies, clinical guidelines, and even cultural traditions may have influenced these trends.
By 2023, the volumes of opioids used in Scandinavia remained well above the average in Western and Central Europe, especially in Norway and Denmark. But opioid prescribing patterns alone do not tell the whole story; higher use may indicate inappropriate prescribing—or it could also reflect better access to necessary pain relief. Ongoing monitoring is vital for understanding trends and evaluating the impact of clinical or policy changes—but decisions about whether population-level opioid use is problematic should also consider key outcomes such as long-term use, addiction, and overdose involving prescription opioids.
Contact: Gabriela Rolová (gabriela.rolova@medisin.uio.no; +47 998 77 113) or Svetlana Skurtveit (SvetlanaOndrasova.Skurtveit@fhi.no; +47 411 03 614)
Reference: Rolová G, Skurtveit S, Handal M, et al. Trends in opioid prescribing in Scandinavian countries from 2010 to 2023: Insights from multi-metric evaluation. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2025;1‐12.