A study published in Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety examined self-reported misuse of prescribed opioid medications in the U.S. general population.
Researchers studied 31,068 adults who participated in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2015 and 2016 and reported using opioids in the past year.
The study shows 3.9 million of the more than 89 million U.S. adults who used prescription opioids every year reported misusing the prescribed medications.
Prescribed opioid misuse was most strongly associated with:
• Co-occurring misuse of opioids without a prescription
• Misuse of benzodiazepines
• Other drug use disorders
• History of illegal activity
• Psychological distress