Junior doctors given a 30-minute education session about opioids after surgery prescribed fewer of the drugs to patients on discharge, a Melbourne study shows.

Patients were 70% more likely to leave hospital without opioids following the education session, researchers report in the Medical Journal of Australia.

In addition, doctors who provided opioid education were less likely to prescribe slow-release opioids to patients, the study showed.

Researchers from Monash University and Alfred Health looked at data from patients discharged from Alfred Health’s 13 surgical units in a 10-week period in 2019.