This report describes the findings from a public health surveillance collaboration between Public Health Scotland, the University of Bristol, and Glasgow Caledonian University. These organisations were commissioned by the Scottish Government to establish a new methodology for estimating the prevalence of opioid dependence in Scotland using linked administrative health datasets. This report describes estimates of the number of people with opioid dependence who are at risk of drug-related harm (such as overdose poisoning and other causes of premature mortality, hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV), with the potential to benefit from opioid agonist therapy (OATi), whether they are/were in receipt of OAT or not. Estimates of prevalence are also provided. Prevalence is the number of people with opioid dependence as a percentage of the general population.

All estimates in this report were calculated using a recently developed statistical modelling approach, 'Multi-Parameter Estimation of Prevalence' (MPEP).