Revised edition of "Narcotics and psychotropic drugs: striking a balance in national opioid control policies: methodological guidelines for evaluation", World Health Organization, Geneva.
- Control of medicines and narcotics.
- Basic medicines - provision and distribution.
- Health policy.
- Human rights.
- Legislation, medicine.
- Legislation, pharmacy.
- Disorders related to the use of opioids - prevention and control.
- Methodological instructions. I. World Health Organization. The research that led to these results received funding from the Seventh Framework Program of the European Community (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 222994 with the overall aim of improving access to opioid medicines in Europe.
With the partial support of the Foundation of the Open Society Institute (Zug), the Dutch Ministry of Health, Social Care and Sport, the French Government's interdepartmental mission Mission interministerérille de la lutte contre la drogue et la toxicomanie (French translation) and the International Society for the Study of Pain.
This document was prepared as part of the Access to Opioid Medications in Europe (ATOME) project Website: http://www.atome‐project.eu
PREFACE
This new World Health Organization (WHO) policy guidance, Ensuring balance in national policies for controlled substances: guidance on the availability and accessibility of controlled medicines, builds on a previous set of guidance - Balance in national opioid control policy: guidance on evaluation, published in 2000.
A 2000 document focused mainly on the need to address pain in cancer patients. However, the WHO estimates that 5.5 million terminal cancer patients still suffer from moderate to severe pain that is not managed at all every year. This area therefore still requires methodological guidance.
However, cancer is not the only cause of pain. The WHO estimates that tens of millions of people experience untreated pain from a variety of diseases and conditions other than cancer and therefore require access to medicines (many of which are controlled) to relieve pain.
However, controlled drugs are not only used to relieve pain. Better access to individual controlled drugs could prevent, for example, 130,000 new HIV infections among injecting drug users and around 75,000 maternal deaths.
The new guidelines apply to a wider range of medicines and indicate aspects that were not previously covered but should be considered when working to improve access: human rights, gender and a public health perspective.
The current task is their application. WHO is committed to helping countries use the guidelines, assisting in conducting legislative and policy evaluations, and assisting in strategies to overcome current barriers to access.
Dr. Carissa F. Etienne Assistant General Manager Health systems and services World Health Organization
© World Health Organization 2011
Link to publication in PDF (850KB) - Slovak version: http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/GLs_Ens_Balance_NOCP_sanend_SK.pdf
Link for other language versions: http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/guide_nocp_sanend/en/index.html