Dr Andrew Byrne - Sydney University
- Pippa Starr
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Dr Andrew Byrne is a third generation medical practitioner working in inner Sydney, Australia. He treats referred patients with problems in the drug and alcohol field.
His graduate degree is from Sydney University (MB, BS) and has a Fellowship of the Chapter of Addiction Medicine, Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FAChAM).
After 5 years residency in various positions at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Rachel Forster Hospitals, Dr Byrne commenced private general practice in Redfern in 1984.
In 1986 Dr Byrne became one of the first GPs in New South Wales to prescribe methadone for addiction. Prior to this only psychiatrists were permitted to be involved in the field. There are now over 500 such doctors in this state alone, mostly general practitioners.
Since 1986, Dr Byrne has treated over 1000 dependent patients with methadone, buprenorphine and other modalities. His nine year follow-up study was published in June 2000 in the Drug & Alcohol Review. This may be the most comprehensive longitudinal description of community treatment so far published. Numerous other peer-reviewed articles have been published under his name along with over 100 letters, commentaries and lighter 'opinion' pieces. These have appeared in many diverse publications such as the Australian Medical Journal, Addiction Research, Journal of Maintenance in the Addictions, British Medical Journal, The International Journal of Drug Policy, and the New York Times. He has also co-authored other recent papers or commentaries on methadone metabolism, hepatitis C and naltrexone implants.
Andrew Byrne has published 2 books on addictions and also co-authored a chapter with Dr Robert Newman in "Heroin Crisis" 'Methadone - many myths, but little mystery' (1999 ISBN 1 863 95321 3 Bookman Press, Melbourne).
He served on the Methadone Sub-Committee of the NSW Health Department from 1996 until 1999. He was an original contributor to the NSW Methadone Prescribers Course and remained a member of the NSW Methadone Prescribers Accreditation Committee (MPAC) until 1998. He continues to be involved in training doctors in pharmacotherapy for addictions. He was a convenor of combined APSAD (Australian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs) - Methadone Conference in Sydney in 2001. He has contributed to most annual APSAD conferences in some way for over a decade on a variety of topics.
Dr Byrne gave a presentation to the San Francisco Health Department regarding office-based physician methadone prescribing. He spoke at the 1998 conference at the New York Academy of Medicine regarding alternative pharmacotherapies for opiate addiction.
He has been a consultant to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission on several sensitive dependency cases and has given expert testimony in a number of cases involving the prescribing of benzodiazepines and methadone to drug addicts. He has also acted as a medical referee for the ACT Community and Health Services Complaints Commission on several occasions.
Andrew Byrne convenes the Concord Hospital Dependency Seminars Series for GPs and other professionals every second month under the auspices of the Professional Methadone Association.
He is currently a peer-reviewer for Addiction Biology (London), Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (Melbourne) and the International Journal of Drug Policy. He also contributes to numerous internet discussion groups and web pages while also writing regular opera reviews and keeping up a keen interest in early dynastic Egyptology.