Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report

People may receive alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services for use of one or several substances. The principal drug of concern (PDOC) is the main substance that the client stated led them to receive treatment. Clients can also nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern, though these are not necessarily the subject of any treatment within the episode.

This section presents information on treatment episodes provided to clients for their own AOD use only. It is assumed that only the person using a substance themselves can accurately report their principal drug of concern. Therefore, these data are not collected for people who received treatment for someone else’s drug use.

This section focuses on treatment episodes provided for alcohol, amphetamines, cannabis and heroin as the PDOC. These 4 drugs were consistently the most common principal drugs of concern across Australia in the 10-year period up to 2022–23. For detailed information on each drug of concern, refer to the technical notes.

Drugs of concern and treatment provided

In 2022–23, 217,303 (or 92%) treatment episodes were provided to 123, 744 clients for their own AOD use (Table OV.1). Among these episodes:

• The most common principal drugs of concern were alcohol (43% of treatment episodes), amphetamines (24%), cannabis (17%) and heroin (4.5%) (Table Drg.1).
• Clients reported at least 1 additional drug of concern in over one quarter of treatment episodes (26%).
  • The number of additional drugs reported was most commonly 1 (17% of episodes) or 2 drugs (6.0%).
  • Cannabis (10% of episodes), nicotine (7.8%) and alcohol (6.0%) were the most common additional drugs of concern (tables Drg.1, Drg.2, Drg.3).
• For the 4 most common principal drugs of concern, the most common treatment setting was non-residential treatment facilities (ranging from 62% to 71%) (Table Drg.8).

In the 10 years to 2022–23, the total number of treatment episodes for clients’ own drug use increased from 171,828 to 217,303 episodes (Table OV.1), while the number of clients receiving treatment increased from 108,449 to 123,744. 

Among these episodes across the period:

• Alcohol remained the most common principal drug of concern each year, and treatment episodes increased by 33% over this period (from 69,491 to 92,417 episodes).
• The proportion of treatment episodes for alcohol in relation to all other drugs of concern fluctuated, falling from 40% in 2013–14 to 32% in 2015–16, before rising to 43% in 2022–23. 
• Treatment episodes for amphetamines as a principal drug of concern almost doubled since 2013–14 (28,919 to 51,902 episodes), although this has declined since 2019–20 (60,987 episodes).
  • Over 4 in 5 (82%) episodes for amphetamines were for methamphetamine as the principal drug of concern, increasing from 25% since 2013–14 (from 7,168 to 42,380 episodes).  
• Treatment episodes for heroin as the principal drug of concern fell from 7.0% to 4.5% (12,000 to 9,745 episodes).
• Treatment episodes for cannabis fluctuated, peaking at 45,043 episodes in 2015–16. 
• In relation to all other drugs of concern, cannabis treatment episodes were most prominent between 2013-14 to 2014–15 when they constituted 24% of all episodes (Table Drg.5).

Fluctuations in certain principal drug treatment episodes in particular years may be due to administrative anomalies in the data. For example, the drop in all treatment episodes in the 2014–15 and 2016–17 collection years may be partly related to system changes resulting in under-reporting or partial reporting of the number of episodes in some jurisdictions (See the Data quality statement for further details).

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