Background/Aim: Patients in developing countries do not always receive
adequate painrelieving treatment. Monitoring of analgesic consumption is of
great importance, since this can help assessing the quality of painful
condition management. The aim of this paper is to present a five-year
consumption and costs of drugs with analgesic effects in developing
countries, exemplified by Serbia and Montenegro, and indicate the main
reasons for their (in)adequate prescribing. Methods: The observational,
retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in order to analyse
consumption of all analgesics, both opioid and non-opioid, in Serbia and
Montenegro, as developing countries. The data concerning analgesic
consumption and drug prices were obtained from annual editions of the
publications of the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of Serbia and
Montenegro. The WHO methodology with defined daily dose (DDD) as a unit of
measure (it is defined by the number of DDD per 1000 inhabitants per day)
was used in these publications. Results: In the course of the fiveyear
period (from 2015 to 2019) in Serbia, the total allocations for analgesic
therapy had a rising trend; from about 43.6 million to 63.3 million of
Euros, while in Montenegro expenditures showed annual variations with
highest value in 2018. Most of the money in both countries was invested in
M01A group of drugs, for which the highest consumption was also recorded.
Significantly higher consumption of opioid analgesics in Montenegro
comparing with Serbia was observed in the same period, and it predominatly
reflected the difference in fentanyl (N02AB03, transdermal patch)
prescribing. In Montenegro, consumption of M01group of drugs was
prominently higher in comparison to M01AE group during the whole five-year
period, similarly like in Serbia in which this was not the case only in
2018. Conclusions: Taking into account the importance of analgesics for
everyday medical practice, more rational prescribing of these drugs is
necessary both in Serbia and Montenegro in the future.