Aine Keating and Annie McCole from Coláiste Ailigh, Donegal, won the Health Research Board prize for the best health-related project at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition held in January 2007 at the RDS in Dublin.

The aim of their project was to highlight the ongoing problem of codeine addiction in Ireland. They contacted 120 pharmacies in Dublin, and in the west and north-west of Ireland, of which 83% responded to their survey.  One hundred questionnaires were analysed.  They interviewed two pharmacists and contacted various interest groups, including the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, the Irish Medicines Board, Cork University and GlaxoSmithKline.

Results of their survey show that soluble Solpadeine, which contains codeine, is the most common non-prescription medical product sold in the pharmacies surveyed, followed by Neurofen Plus, which also contains codeine.

The majority of pharmacists surveyed (94%) believed that some customers, estimated at an average of four per day, who purchased products containing codeine were addicted to codeine.  Seventy-two per cent of the pharmacists would like to see a change in the legislation to limit the quantity of codeine that can be sold over the counter.

As a result of their survey, the students concluded that ‘codeine addiction is a widespread problem around Ireland’.