Prescription stimulant use during long-term opioid therapy and risk for opioid use disorder.

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).

Methods: This retrospective cohort study from 2010 to 2018 used a United States, nationally distributed Optum© analytics Integrated Claims-Clinical dataset. Patients ≥18 years of age, and free of prevalent OUD in the two years prior to index were eligible. All patients had a new ≥90-day opioid prescription. The index date was day 91. We compared risk for new OUD diagnoses in patients with and without a prescription stimulant overlapping LTOT. Entropy balancing and weighting controlled for confounding factors.

Results: Patients ( = 5,712), were 57.7 (SD±14.9) years of age on average, majority female (59.8%) and 73.3% White race. Among patients with LTOT, 2.8% had overlapping stimulant prescriptions. Before controlling for confounding, dual stimulant-opioid prescriptions, compared to opioid only, were associated with OUD risk (HR = 1.75; 95%CI:1.17-2.61). After controlling for confounding, this association was no longer present (HR = 0.89; 95%CI:0.47-1.71). Results did not differ in sensitivity analyses limiting the cohort to those <56 years of age.

Conclusions: Dual stimulant use among patients with LTOT does not increase risk for OUD. Stimulants prescribed for ADHD and other conditions may not worsen opioid outcomes for some patients with LTOT.