Recent increases in opioid analgesic prescribing in the US and worldwide have coincided with increases in opioid-related morbidity and mortality. As described in a 2015 NIH workshop report and in multiple commentaries in peer-reviewed health journals, however, the exact harms of prescription opioid analgesics- and their precise role in the ongoing opioid epidemic-remain unclear. This uncertainty has been driven by the limited sample sizes and follow-up durations of randomized, controlled trials, as well as the challenge of ruling out biased selection and other confounding in observational studies. Notably, patients who receive prescription opioids may also be more likely to have pre-existing conditions such as substance use disorders. This process is referred to as adverse selection, and it suggests that prior estimates of opioid harms from some observational studies may have been artificially inflated. The overall objective of the proposed research is, therefore, to use advance pharmacoepidemiologic approaches to determine the extent to which prescribed opioids have behavioral harms. In particular, the proposed studies will estimate the risks of prescribed opioids for substance use disorders, motor vehicle accidents, depression, and suicidal behavior, each of which has been identified in prior literature as a potential opioid harm. In 2 population-level datasets-including 1.9 million opioid recipients drawn from the whole Swedish population and 26 million opioid recipients drawn from US insurance claims-these studies will evaluate the central hypothesis that prescribed opioids are associated with behavioral harms, which would be consistent with true adverse effects. First, the proposed research will examine the extent to which patients receive prescription opioids more frequently in the presence of pre- existing substance use disorders, mood disorders, and other social and behavioral factors. Having identified these potential confounds, analyses will subsequently estimate risk associations between opioid prescriptions and both short-term and long-term behavioral harms. Specifically, analyses will use within-person comparisons, which implicitly rule out all sources of time-invariant confounding, and time-varying statistical covariates, which explicitly rule out sources o time-varying confounding. The rationale for this approach is that the combination of within-person analyses, time-varying covariates, and data from two populations will help generate more accurate estimates of the adverse effects of prescribed opioids. The proposed research will be complemented with training in (a) pharmacoepidemiology and other quasi-experimental research, (b) clinical pain research, (c) collaborative science, and (d) the responsible conduct of research. Upon the completion of the proposed activities, the applicant is expected to have reached the long-term goal of establishing an independent program researching the causes and consequences of opioid and other substance use.

Public Health Relevance

By using advanced pharmacoepidemiologic designs and analyses in two large datasets, the proposed studies will provide more accurate estimates of the risks of prescribed opioid analgesics for substance use disorders, motor vehicle accidents, depression, and suicidal behavior than have previous studies. These results will enhance broader understandings of the harms and benefits of opioid analgesic use, thereby informing decision-making in pain treatment and policy.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Career Transition Award (K99)
Project #
1K99DA040727-01
Application #
9013526
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDA1-HXO-H (01)S)
Program Officer
Crump, Aria
Project Start
2016-06-01
Project End
2018-05-31
Budget Start
2016-06-01
Budget End
2017-05-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
$136,783
Indirect Cost
$10,132
Name
Indiana University Bloomington
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
006046700
City
Bloomington
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47401
Quinn, Patrick D; Hur, Kwan; Chang, Zheng et al. (2018) Association of Mental Health Conditions and Treatments With Long-term Opioid Analgesic Receipt Among Adolescents. JAMA Pediatr 172:423-430
Wiggs, Kelsey K; Chang, Zheng; Quinn, Patrick D et al. (2018) Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medication and seizures. Neurology 90:e1104-e1110
Sujan, Ayesha C; Öberg, A Sara; Quinn, Patrick D et al. (2018) Annual Research Review: Maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and offspring neurodevelopmental problems - a critical review and recommendations for future research. J Child Psychol Psychiatry :
Quinn, Patrick D; Rickert, Martin E; Weibull, Caroline E et al. (2017) Association Between Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Severe Mental Illness in Offspring. JAMA Psychiatry 74:589-596
Chang, Zheng; Quinn, Patrick D; Hur, Kwan et al. (2017) Association Between Medication Use for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Risk of Motor Vehicle Crashes. JAMA Psychiatry 74:597-603
Quinn, Patrick D; Chang, Zheng; Hur, Kwan et al. (2017) ADHD Medication and Substance-Related Problems. Am J Psychiatry 174:877-885
Kennedy, Daniel P; D'Onofrio, Brian M; Quinn, Patrick D et al. (2017) Genetic Influence on Eye Movements to Complex Scenes at Short Timescales. Curr Biol 27:3554-3560.e3
Sujan, Ayesha C; Rickert, Martin E; Öberg, A Sara et al. (2017) Associations of Maternal Antidepressant Use During the First Trimester of Pregnancy With Preterm Birth, Small for Gestational Age, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Offspring. JAMA 317:1553-1562
Quinn, Patrick D; Hur, Kwan; Chang, Zheng et al. (2017) Incident and long-term opioid therapy among patients with psychiatric conditions and medications: a national study of commercial health care claims. Pain 158:140-148