Table 1. Example of calculations for OMEQ_e (mg) using 2005 data for female subjects.

	Units used for calculating annualised OMEQe
Drug product	Recommended daily dosea ,b	Oral morphine equivalent of daily dose (mg)c ,d	Annual number of prescriptions	Annualised total OMEQe burden (mg)
Buprenorphine
10 mcg per hour	1 patch per week	24	28	672
52.5 mcg per hour	1 patch twice a week	126	354	44 604
Codeine
Co-codamol 8/500	2 tablets 4 times a day	6.4	17 952	114 893
Codeine phosphate 30 mg	2 tablets 4 times a day	24	16 293	391 032
Zapain capsules (30/500)	2 tablets 4 times a day	24	112	2688
Dihydrocodeine
Co-dydramol 10/500	2 tablets 4 times a day	8	153 047	1 224 376
DHC Continus 90 mg MR tablet	1 tablet twice a day	18	1009	18 612
Remedeine tablet	2 tablets 4 times a day	16	1295	20 720
Fentanyl
Durogesic 100 mcg per hour patch	1 patch every 3 days	360	131	47 160
Fentanyl 200 mcg SL lozenge	1 lozenge 4 times a day	120	40	4800
Fentanyl 25 mcg per hour patch	1 patch every 3 days	90	3429	308 610
Morphine
Morphgesic SR 10 mg m/r tablet	1 tablet twice a day	20	73	730
MXL 60 mg m/r capsule	1 capsule once a day	60	23	1380
Oramorph 10 mg/5 ml liquid 100 ml	5 mL every 2 hours	120	573	68 760
Sevredol 20 mg tablet	1 tablet every 6 hours	120	299	35 880
Oxycodone
Longtec 20 mg m/r tablets	1 tablet twice a day	80	1	80
Oxycodone HCl 20 mg capsule	1 capsule every 4 hours	240	250	60 000
OxyContin 80 mg m/r tablet	1 capsule twice a day	320	262	83 840
Tramadol
Dromadol XL 200 mg m/r tablet	1 tablet once daily	20	11	220
Tramadol 50 mg capsule	2 capsules 4 times a day	40	93 918	3 756 720
Tramacet 325 mg/37.5 mg	2 tablets 4 times a day	30	4450	133 500
Other
Co-proxamol 32.5 mg/325 mg tablet	2 tablets 4 times a day	26	82 015	2 132 390
Hydromorphone HCl 1.3 mg capsule	1 capsule every 4 hours	58.5	6	351
Pethidine HCl 50 mg tablet	1 tablet every 4 hours	30	2381	71 430

Annualised total = estimated oral morphine equivalent of daily dose x annual number of prescriptions. Process repeated for each drug product and totalled for each year. ^{a 39 b 40 c 8 d 64} OMEQ_e = estimated oral morphine equivalent.