Document and Entity Information	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012	Nov. 06, 2012
Document and Entity Information [Abstract]
Entity Registrant Name	BIODELIVERY SCIENCES INTERNATIONAL INC
Entity Central Index Key	0001103021
Document Type	10-Q
Document Period End Date	Sep. 30, 2012
Amendment Flag	true
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2012
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q3
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		30,690,325
Trading Symbol	bdsi
Amendment Description	As disclosed in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) on February 28, 2013, the purpose of this Amendment No. 1 (“Amendment No. 1”) to our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2012 (the “Original 10-Q”), which we filed with the Commission on November 9 2012, is to restate our company’s unaudited financial statements and related disclosures (including, without limitation, those contained under Item 2, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations) contained in the Original 10-Q with respect to our accounting for a $30 million non-refundable license fee (the “Upfront Fee”) we received in January 2012 under our license and development agreement for BEMA Buprenorphine for chronic pain with Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now known as Endo Health Solutions, Inc.) (the “Endo Agreement”). On February 25, 2013, the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors and our executive management jointly determined that an aggregate of approximately $14.4 million of the Upfront Fee should not have been recognized as revenue upon receipt, but should have instead been deferred and recognized as clinical development services were provided by us under the Endo Agreement. We are therefore filing this Amendment No. 1 to reflect the deferral and recognition of revenue for clinical development services performed during the period covered by the Original 10-Q, as well as changes in our footnote disclosure on this topic and related disclosure of our revenue recognition policies with respect to the Endo Agreement. As several parts of the Original 10-Q are amended and/or restated by this Amendment No. 1, for convenience, we have repeated the entire text of the Original 10-Q, as amended and/or restated by this Amendment No. 1. Readers should therefore read and rely on this Amendment No. 1 in lieu of the Original 10-Q. This Amendment No. 1 also contains currently dated officer certifications as Exhibits 31.1, 31.2, 32.1 and 32.2. Except as amended and/or restated by this Amendment No. 1, no other changes have been made to the Original 10-Q. This Amendment No. 1 speaks as of the original filing date of the Original 10-Q and does not reflect events that may have occurred subsequent to such original filing date.