[anon4this1]

Diamorphine is given IV/IM/SC - not orally - which generally means that its use is confined to a short period in the first few hours/days of a hospital admission until the patient can be switched to oral medication. Noone is sent home with diamorphine unless they are end stage palliative and they are on a home syringe driver to get it.

OTOH oxycodone is almost always orally administered which means patients stay on it for longer in hospital and are commonly discharged with a prescription for more.

The doctors I work with who have done fellowships in USA state that oxycodone is (?was) given out like lollywater compared to hospitals here, where it is only prescribed if the patient has a REALLY good reason they can't have oral morphine.

[tcbawo]

I read this recently:

Drug wholesalers shipped 780 million prescription painkillers to West Virginia over a six-year period. In a state of 1.84 million residents, the shipments amount to 433 pain pills for every man, woman and child in West Virginia.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Drug-Wholesalers-Shi...

[robbiep]

Although tablet formulations of diamorph also exist

>The doctors I work with who have done fellowships in USA state that oxycodone is (?was) given out like lollywater compared to hospitals here, where it is only prescribed if the patient has a REALLY good reason they can't have oral morphine.

My experience as a medical student on elective in the US was this - I couldn't believe the quantities of opiates prescribed cf. Australia

[DanBC]

But people in UK do get oramorph, which is a liquid oral morphine.

[anon4this1]

Patients (and addicts) state there is a particular euphoria that oxycodone has (and diamorph/heroin) that morphine doesn't really have. Of course oral morphine does cause addiction, but oxycodone just seems to have greatly increased rates.