Objectives: Assessment and counseling are recommended for individuals with prenatal cannabis use. We examined characteristics that predict prenatal substance use assessment and counseling among individuals who screened positive for prenatal cannabis use in prenatal settings.
Methods: Electronic health record data from Kaiser Permanente Northern California's Early Start perinatal substance use screening, assessment, and counseling program was used to identify individuals with ≥1 pregnancies positive for prenatal cannabis use.
Objective: The quality of alcohol-related prevention and treatment in US primary care is poor. The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which Electronic Health Records (EHRs) used by 167 primary care practices across 7 states currently include the necessary prompts, clinical support, and performance reporting essential for improving alcohol-related prevention and treatment in primary care.
Materials And Methods: Experts from five regional quality improvement programs identified basic EHR features needed to support evidence-based alcohol-related prevention (ie, screening and brief intervention) and treatment of alcohol use disorders (AUD).
Importance: The Primary Care Opioid Use Disorders (PROUD) treatment trial was a 2-year implementation trial that demonstrated the Massachusetts office-based addiction treatment (OBAT) model of nurse care management for opioid use disorder (OUD) increased OUD treatment in the 2 years after implementation began (8.2 more patient-years of OUD treatment per 10 000 primary care patients). The intervention was continued for a third year, permitting evaluation of 3-year outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Valid, single-item cannabis screens for the frequency of past-year use (SIS-C) can identify patients at risk for cannabis use disorder (CUD); however, the prevalence of CUD for patients who report varying frequencies of use in the clinical setting remains unexplored.
Objective: Compare clinical responses about the frequency of past-year cannabis use to typical use and CUD severity reported on a confidential survey.
Participants: Among adult patients in an integrated health system who completed the SIS-C as part of routine care (3/28/2019-9/12/2019; n = 108,950), 5000 were selected for a confidential survey using stratified random sampling.
This population-based cross-sectional study analyzed electronic health record data of pregnant individuals in an integrated health care delivery system in California to examine changes in prenatal cannabis use through self-report and urine toxicology testing during standard prenatal care between 2012 (n=33,546) and 2022 (n=43,415), and to test whether trends differed by race and ethnicity or age. The prevalence of prenatal cannabis use increased from 5.5% (95% CI, 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prevalence of cannabis use disorder (CUD) is increasing in the US and primary care providers need tools to identify patients with moderate-severe CUD to facilitate treatment. A single-item screen for cannabis (SIS-C) has outstanding discriminative validity for CUD. However, because the prevalence of moderate-severe CUD is typically low, the probability that an average patient who screens positive for daily cannabis has moderate-severe cannabis use disorder is low, making follow-up assessment important.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To estimate the strength of association between psychiatric disorders and substance use disorders (SUD), and cannabis use and cannabis use disorder (CUD) during early pregnancy.
Design: Observational study.
Setting: Kaiser Permanente Northern California, USA.
Background: Medical cannabis is commonly used for chronic pain, but little is known about differences in characteristics, cannabis use patterns, and perceived helpfulness among primary care patients who use cannabis for pain versus nonpain reasons.
Methods: Among 1688 patients who completed a 2019 cannabis survey administered in a health system in Washington state, where recreational use is legal, participants who used cannabis for pain (n = 375) were compared with those who used cannabis for other reasons (n = 558) using survey and electronic health record data. We described group differences in participant characteristics, use patterns, and perceptions and applied adjusted multinomial logistic and modified Poisson regression.
Importance: Few primary care (PC) practices treat patients with medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) despite availability of effective treatments.
Objective: To assess whether implementation of the Massachusetts model of nurse care management for OUD in PC increases OUD treatment with buprenorphine or extended-release injectable naltrexone and secondarily decreases acute care utilization.
Design, Setting, And Participants: The Primary Care Opioid Use Disorders Treatment (PROUD) trial was a mixed-methods, implementation-effectiveness cluster randomized clinical trial conducted in 6 diverse health systems across 5 US states (New York, Florida, Michigan, Texas, and Washington).
Background: Brief cannabis screening followed by standardized assessment of symptoms may support diagnosis and treatment of cannabis use disorder (CUD). This study tested whether the probability of a medical provider diagnosing and treating CUD increased with the number of substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms documented in patients' EHRs.
Methods: This observational study used EHR and claims data from an integrated healthcare system.
Importance: Medical and nonmedical cannabis use and cannabis use disorders (CUD) have increased with increasing cannabis legalization. However, the prevalence of CUD among primary care patients who use cannabis for medical or nonmedical reasons is unknown for patients in states with legal recreational use.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence and severity of CUD among patients who report medical use only, nonmedical use only, and both reasons for cannabis use in a state with legal recreational use.
Importance: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are underrecognized in primary care, where structured clinical interviews are often infeasible. A brief, standardized substance use symptom checklist could help clinicians assess SUD.
Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Substance Use Symptom Checklist (hereafter symptom checklist) used in primary care among patients reporting daily cannabis use and/or other drug use as part of population-based screening and assessment.
Importance: Unhealthy alcohol use is common and affects morbidity and mortality but is often neglected in medical settings, despite guidelines for both prevention and treatment.
Objective: To test an implementation intervention to increase (1) population-based alcohol-related prevention with brief interventions and (2) treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in primary care implemented with a broader program of behavioral health integration.
Design, Setting, And Participants: The Sustained Patient-Centered Alcohol-Related Care (SPARC) trial was a stepped-wedge cluster randomized implementation trial, including 22 primary care practices in an integrated health system in Washington state.
Drug Alcohol Depend Rep
December 2022
Background: Concurrent therapeutic prescribing of prescription stimulants with opioid analgesics is increasing in the United States. Stimulant medication use is associated with increased risk for long-term opioid therapy (LTOT), and LTOT is associated with increased risk for opioid use disorder (OUD).
Aims: To determine if stimulant prescriptions among those with LTOT (≥90 days) are associated with greater risk for opioid use disorder (OUD).
Evidence suggests fetal risks are associated with cannabis use during pregnancy. Yet, insights into women's decision-making and cannabis use during pregnancy are limited. This study explored these concepts with postpartum women who used cannabis during and after pregnancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this exploratory analysis was to evaluate cannabis exposure, reasons for use and problematic cannabis use among adult primary care patients in Washington state (United States) who co-use cannabis and nicotine (tobacco cigarettes and/or nicotine vaping) compared to patients who endorse current cannabis use only. As part of a NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) parent study, patients who completed a cannabis screen as part of routine primary care were randomly sampled (N = 5,000) to a receive a confidential cannabis survey. Patients were stratified and oversampled based on the frequency of past-year cannabis use and for Black, indigenous, or other persons of color.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 2016, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recommended seven domains for training and mentoring researchers in learning health systems (LHS) science. Health equity was not included as a competency domain. This commentary from scholars in the Consortium for Applied Training to Advance the Learning health system with Scholars/Trainees (CATALyST) K12 program recommends that competency domains be extended to reflect growing demands for evidence on health inequities and interventions to alleviate them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The design of integrated adolescent mental health care should address needs and preferences of patients and parents/guardians.
Method: We conducted interviews and focus groups with adolescents aged 13-17 years who received care at Kaiser Permanente Washington in 2020 and interviews with parents of such adolescents. We sought to (1) understand the challenges of primary care-based mental health and substance use screening and care for adolescents and (2) identify program design solutions.
Importance: Patients who use cannabis for medical reasons may benefit from discussions with clinicians about health risks of cannabis and evidence-based treatment alternatives. However, little is known about the prevalence of medical cannabis use in primary care and how often it is documented in patient electronic health records (EHR).
Objective: To estimate the primary care prevalence of medical cannabis use according to confidential patient survey and to compare the prevalence of medical cannabis use documented in the EHR with patient report.