Polysubstance use, mood disorders, and chronic conditions with anxiety in opioid patients.

This study examined the associations of polysubstance use, mood disorders, and chronic conditions with the history of anxiety disorder among patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). Researchers performed a secondary analysis of the baseline data from NIDA-CTN-0027 (“Starting Treatment with Agonist Replacement Therapies (START)”), a clinical trial that included 1,645 individuals with OUD, of which 513 had anxiety disorder. Substance use disorder (SUDs) included alcohol, amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, and sedative use disorders. Mood disorders included major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Chronic conditions were allergies, gastrointestinal problem(s), skin problem(s), and hypertension. Sedative use disorder, MDD, BD, skin problems, and hypertension were significantly associated with anxiety disorder. Additionally, more than two SUDs, two mood disorders, and more than two chronic conditions were significantly associated with anxiety disorder.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the comorbid mental health and physical health problems in individuals with OUD, as well as the need for integrated multidisciplinary treatment plans. Future areas of research should focus on not only OUD, but also patients presenting with other comorbidities to identify more vulnerable groups, discover effective solutions, and reduce the prevalence of OUD.

Related protocols: CTN-0027