Despite increasing concern about the growing problem of abuse/dependence due to misuse of analgesic medications, little is known about the nature and extent of this public health problem in the United States. Extramedical analgesic initiation has been on the rise during the past decade, but the characteristics of analgesic users as well as the potential pathways associated with extramedical analgesic use and abuse/dependence are still understudied. The objectives of this study are to : 1) test for changes in characteristics of extramedical analgesic users over time, 2) test for potential causal pathways between psychiatric disorders and extramedical analgesic use and abuse/dependence, 3) estimate the distribution of symptoms of extramedical analgesic abuse/dependence in the U.S. household population, 4) test for categories of problem extramedical analgesic use based on observed clustering of symptoms of analgesic abuse/dependence and identify factors associated with analgesic abuse/dependence. We use data from two major surveys of drug use and related problems in the U.S: the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), and the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcoholism and Related Conditions (NESARC). After initial exploratory data analyses, we will use logistic regression to estimate associations of extramedical analgesic use with demographic characteristics, psychiatric comorbidity and patterns of other drug use and to test whether these associations change over time. We will estimate the prevalence of extramedical analgesic abuse/dependence over time and test whether the conditional probability of abuse/dependence among extramedical analgesic users has changed over time. We will use Cox proportional hazards models with time- dependent covariates to test for potential causal pathways between psychiatric disorders and extramedical analgesic use, abuse and dependence. In addition, we will estimate incidence and prevalence of disorders and individual symptoms overall in the population and use generalized estimating equations to compare profiles of symptoms of abuse/dependence across subgroups of extramedical analgesic users and between current and past extramedical analgesic users. We will use latent class analysis to test for the best fitting latent class model using the symptoms of analgesic abuse/dependence and compare these classes to existing diagnostic categories, and we will test for variation in latent class structure by subgroups of drug use - e.g., compare latent class structure for analgesic users without other opiate use versus those with heroin use. Latent class regression will be used to investigate how class membership varies in relation to characteristics of interest (e.g., demographic characteristics). Finally, we believe that our study will bring significant public health contributions to help develop prevention and treatment strategies in order to decrease extramedical analgesic use, abuse and dependence. The proposed research will shed light in the understanding of potential problems related to extramedical analgesic use and of causal pathways between psychiatric disorders and extramedical analgesic use. It will contribute to the development of prevention, intervention and treatment for problem extramedical analgesic users. ? ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
1R21DA020667-01A2
Application #
7256010
Study Section
Behavioral Genetics and Epidemiology Study Section (BGES)
Program Officer
Obrien, Moira
Project Start
2007-05-15
Project End
2009-04-30
Budget Start
2007-05-15
Budget End
2008-04-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$233,581
Indirect Cost
Name
Johns Hopkins University
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
001910777
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21218
Castaldelli-Maia, João Mauricio; Martins, Silvia S; de Oliveira, Lúcio Garcia et al. (2014) Use transition between illegal drugs among Brazilian university students. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 49:385-94
Ghandour, Lilian A; El Sayed, Donna S; Martins, Silvia S (2013) Alcohol and illegal drug use behaviors and prescription opioids use: how do nonmedical and medical users compare, and does motive to use really matter? Eur Addict Res 19:202-10
Cavanaugh, Courtenay E; Martins, Silvia S; Petras, Hanno et al. (2013) Mental disorders associated with subpopulations of women affected by violence and abuse. J Trauma Stress 26:459-66
Nower, Lia; Martins, Silvia S; Lin, Keng-Han et al. (2013) Subtypes of disordered gamblers: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Addiction 108:789-98
Martins, S S; Fenton, M C; Keyes, K M et al. (2012) Mood and anxiety disorders and their association with non-medical prescription opioid use and prescription opioid-use disorder: longitudinal evidence from the National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Psychol Med 42:1261-72
Keyes, K M; Martins, S S; Hatzenbuehler, M L et al. (2012) Mental health service utilization for psychiatric disorders among Latinos living in the United States: the role of ethnic subgroup, ethnic identity, and language/social preferences. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 47:383-94
Ghandour, Lilian A; El Sayed, Donna S; Martins, Silvia S (2012) Prevalence and patterns of commonly abused psychoactive prescription drugs in a sample of university students from Lebanon: an opportunity for cross-cultural comparisons. Drug Alcohol Depend 121:110-7
Castaldelli-Maia, Joao Mauricio; Martins, Silvia Saboia; Bhugra, Dinesh et al. (2012) Does ragging play a role in medical student depression - cause or effect? J Affect Disord 139:291-7
Pacek, Lauren R; Malcolm, Robert J; Martins, Silvia S (2012) Race/ethnicity differences between alcohol, marijuana, and co-occurring alcohol and marijuana use disorders and their association with public health and social problems using a national sample. Am J Addict 21:435-44
Kuramoto, S Janet; Chilcoat, Howard D; Ko, Jean et al. (2012) Suicidal ideation and suicide attempt across stages of nonmedical prescription opioid use and presence of prescription opioid disorders among U.S. adults. J Stud Alcohol Drugs 73:178-84

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