Differences in the consumption rates and regulatory barriers to the accessibility of strong opioid analgesics in Israel and St. Petersburg.

Objective: To compare trends in opioid consumption in Israel and St. Petersburg/Russia (morphine, oxycodone, pethidine, fentanyl, methadone, buprenorphine, trimeperidine, and papaveretum) over the period 2000-2008, and to describe the regulatory barriers to their accessibility as an exploratory variable for between-country differences.

Methods: Data were drawn from the databases maintained by the Israel Ministry of Health's Pharmaceutical Administration and the St.