Importance: Given the personal and social burdens of opioid use disorder (OUD), understanding time trends in OUD prevalence in large patient populations is key to planning prevention and treatment services.
Objective: To examine trends in the prevalence of OUD from 2005 to 2022 overall and by age, sex, and race and ethnicity.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This serial cross-sectional study included national Veterans Health Administration (VHA) electronic medical record data from the VHA Corporate Data Warehouse.
Objectives: Medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is effective and recommended for outpatient settings. We implemented and evaluated the SUpporting Primary care Providers in Opioid Risk reduction and Treatment (SUPPORT) Center-a quality improvement partnership to implement stepped care for MOUD in 2 Veterans Health Administration (VA) primary care (PC) clinics.
Methods: SUPPORT provided a dedicated clinical team (nurse practitioner prescriber and social worker) and stepped care ([1] identification, assessment, referral; [2] MOUD induction; [3] stabilization; and [4] maintenance supporting PC providers [PCPs] to initiate and/or sustain treatment) coupled with ongoing internal facilitation (consultation, trainings, informatics support).
Objectives: Buprenorphine, a medication for opioid use disorder (OUD), is underutilized in general medical settings. Further, it is inequitably received by racialized groups and persons with comorbidities. The Veterans Health Administration launched an initiative to increase buprenorphine receipt in primary care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: Veterans are a large population that is disproportionately affected by various physical and mental health conditions. The primary aim of this review is to provide a concise overview of recent literature on the prevalence of cannabis use and cannabis use disorder (CUD) among US Veterans, and associations with mental and physical health conditions. We also addressed gaps in the literature by investigating associations between CUD and mental and physical health conditions in 2019 data from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA; N=5,657,277).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although cannabis legalization is associated with increases in self-report cannabis use, biological measures of cannabis use are needed to address potential bias introduced by improved self-reporting of cannabis use in states enacting medical cannabis laws (MCL) and recreational cannabis laws (RCL).
Objective: Quantify the role of MCL and RCL enactment in cannabis positive urine drug screen (UDS) prevalence among Veterans Health Administration (VHA) emergency department (ED) patients from 2008 to 2019.
Design: Staggered-adoption difference-in-difference analysis were used to estimate the role of MCL and RCL in cannabis positive UDS data, fitting adjusted linear binomial regression models to estimate the association between MCL and RCL enactment and prevalence of cannabis positive UDS.
Introduction: Co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs) are common among people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and known to hinder receipt of medications for OUD (MOUD). It is important to understand how MOUD care implemented outside of SUD specialty settings impacts access for patients with co-occurring SUDs. The Veterans Health Administration's (VA) Stepped Care for Opioid Use Disorder Train the Trainer (SCOUTT) initiative was implemented in primary care, mental health, and pain clinics in 18 VA facilities, and was found to increase MOUD receipt.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrug Alcohol Depend Rep
September 2023
Introduction: The Brief Addiction Monitor-Revised (BAM-R) is a widely used, 17-item assessment of substance use, risk, and protective factors associated with recovery from substance use disorders. Despite wide adoption in the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated changes in opioid use disorder care. Little is known about COVID-19's impact on general healthcare clinicians' experiences providing medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD). This qualitative evaluation assessed clinicians' beliefs about and experiences delivering MOUD in general healthcare clinics during COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The risk for cannabis use disorder (CUD) is elevated among U.S. adults with chronic pain, and CUD rates are disproportionately increasing in this group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the United States, cannabis is increasingly used to manage chronic pain. Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients are disproportionately affected by pain and may use cannabis for symptom management. Because cannabis use increases the risk of cannabis use disorders (CUDs), we examined time trends in CUD among VHA patients with and without chronic pain, and whether these trends differed by age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is increasing among US adults. Few national studies have addressed the role of medical cannabis laws (MCLs) and recreational cannabis laws (RCLs) in these increases, particularly in patient populations with high rates of CUD risk factors.
Objective: To quantify the role of MCL and RCL enactment in the increases in diagnosed CUD prevalence among Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients from 2005 to 2019.
Unhealthy alcohol use is common among Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans, yet barriers discourage treatment-seeking. Mobile applications (apps) that deliver alcohol interventions have potential to address these barriers and increase treatment receipt. Few studies have qualitatively assessed users' experiences with apps to manage alcohol use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In the United States, adult cannabis use has increased over time, but less information is available on time trends in cannabis use disorder. The authors used Veterans Health Administration (VHA) data to examine change over time in cannabis use disorder diagnoses among veterans, an important population subgroup, and whether such trends differ by age group (<35 years, 35-64 years, ≥65 years), sex, or race/ethnicity.
Methods: VHA electronic health records from 2005 to 2019 (range of Ns per year, 4,403,027-5,797,240) were used to identify the percentage of VHA patients seen each year with a cannabis use disorder diagnosis (ICD-9-CM, January 1, 2005-September 30, 2015; ICD-10-CM, October 1, 2015-December 31, 2019).
Background: Substance use disorders (SUD) elevate the risk for COVID-19 hospitalization, but studies are inconsistent on the relationship of SUD to COVID-19 mortality.
Methods: Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients treated in 2019 and evaluated in 2020 for COVID-19 (n=5,556,315), of whom 62,303 (1.1%) tested positive for COVID-19 (COVID-19+).
Objective: To describe initial benzodiazepine dosing strategies and factors associated with variation in benzodiazepine dosing in a national cohort of hospitalized patients with alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS).
Patients And Methods: This cross-sectional study included adult patients with AWS admitted to medical services and treated with benzodiazepines at 93 Veterans Health Administration hospitals in 2013. Treatment was categorized by initial benzodiazepine dosing strategy-fixed-dose, symptom-triggered, or front-loading.
Importance: With increasing rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose deaths in the US, increased access to medications for OUD (MOUD) is paramount. Rigorous effectiveness evaluations of large-scale implementation initiatives using quasi-experimental designs are needed to inform expansion efforts.
Objective: To evaluate a US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiative to increase MOUD use in nonaddiction clinics.
Background: Improving access to medication treatment of opioid use disorder (MOUD) is a national priority, yet common modifiable barriers (e.g., limited provider knowledge, negative beliefs about MOUD) often challenge implementation of MOUD delivery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychol Addict Behav
March 2022
Importance: Additional options are needed for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans.
Objective: To determine whether group loving-kindness meditation is noninferior to group cognitive processing therapy for treatment of PTSD.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical noninferiority trial assessed PTSD and depression at baseline, posttreatment, and 3- and 6-month follow-up.
Background: Alcohol misuse is common among Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans, yet barriers limit treatment participation. Mobile apps hold promise as means to deliver alcohol interventions to veterans who prefer to remain anonymous, have little time for conventional treatments, or live too far away to attend treatment in person.
Objective: This pilot study evaluated the usability and acceptability of Step Away, a mobile app designed to reduce alcohol-related risks, and explored pre-post changes on alcohol use, psychological distress, and quality of life.
Objectives: Inpatient alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is common and early treatment improves outcomes, but no prior study has used electronic health record (EHR) data, available at admission, to predict the probability of inpatient AWS. This study estimated the probability of inpatient AWS using prior-year EHR data, hypothesizing that documented alcohol use disorder (AUD) and AWS would be strongly associated with inpatient AWS while exploring associations with other patient characteristics.
Methods: The study investigated patients hospitalized ≥24 hours on medical services in the Veterans Health Administration during 2013 using EHR data extracted from the Veterans Health Administration Corporate Data Warehouse.