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The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with increased opioid prescribing. It is not known if perceived COVID-19 related stress is associated with increased odds of long-term opioid use.To determine if greater COVID-19-related stress and worsening pain attributed to the pandemic was associated with LTOT over a 6-month observation period.Longitudinal cohort.Patients (n=477) from two midwestern health care systems, with any acute or chronic non-cancer pain, starting a new period of 30-90-day prescription opioid use, were invited to participate in the Prescription Opioids and Depression Pathways Cohort Study, a longitudinal survey study of pain, opioid use, and mental health outcomes.Baseline and 6-month follow-up assessments were used to measure the association between perceived COVID-19 stressors, the perception that pain was made worse by the pandemic and the odds of persistent opioid use, i.e., remaining a prescription opioid user at 6-month follow-up. Multivariate models controlled for demographics, opioid dose, and change in pain characteristics, mental health measures, and social support.Participants were, on average, 53.9 (±11.4) years of age, 67.1% White race, and 70.9% female. The most frequently endorsed COVID-19 stressor was "worry about health of self/others" (85.7% endorsed) and the least endorsed was "worsened pain due to pandemic" (26.2%). After adjusting for all covariates, "worsened pain due to pandemic" (OR=2.88; 95%CI: 1.33-6.22), change in pain interference (OR=1.20; 95%CI: 1.04-1.38), and change in vital exhaustion (OR=0.90; 95%CI: 0.82-0.99) remained significantly associated with persistent opioid use.Patients who attribute worsening pain to the COVID-19 pandemic are more likely to be persistent opioid users. Further research is warranted to identify mechanisms underlying this association. Clinicians may consider discussing pain in the context of the pandemic to identify patients at high risk for persistent opioid use.

This randomized controlled trial of the online intervention, man therapy (MT), evaluated efficacy to reduce suicidal ideation (SI) and depression among working-aged men.Five-hundred and fifty-four men enrolled and 421 completed all surveys. Control Condition men explored the Healthy Men Michigan (HMM) website and Intervention Condition men explored HMM and MT. Hypotheses included men who used MT would report decreased SI and depression over time compared to Control Condition men.Latent growth curve modeling revealed improvements in SI (slope = -0.23, p 0.001, 95% CI: -0.29, -0.16) and depression (slope = -0.21, p 0.001, 95% CI: -0.23, -0.18) over time for men in both groups; however, there was no difference in slope based on group assignment. Depression, lifetime suicide attempts, and interpersonal needs were associated with SI. Interpersonal needs and poor mental health were associated with depression. No group differences in change in risk and protective factors over time were observed. MT sub-group analyses revealed significant improvements in risk and protective factors.While a direct effect of MT versus HMM on SI or depression was not observed, men in both groups improved. Results suggest online screening might play a role in reducing SI and depression among men and there are potential benefits to MT related to mental health, social support, and treatment motivation.

Buprenorphine is an effective medication for opioid use disorder that reduces mortality; however, many patients are not retained in buprenorphine treatment, and an optimal length of treatment after which patients can safely discontinue treatment has not been identified. This study measured the association between buprenorphine treatment duration and all-cause mortality among patients who discontinued treatment. Secondary objectives were to measure the association between treatment duration and drug overdose and opioid-related overdoses.Multi-site cohort study.Eight US health systems.Patients who initiated and discontinued buprenorphine treatment between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2018 (n = 6550). Outcomes occurring after patients discontinued buprenorphine treatment were compared between patients who initiated and discontinued treatment after 8-30, 31-90, 91-180, 181-365 and 365 days.Covariate data were obtained from electronic health records (EHRs). Mortality outcomes were derived from EHRs and state vital statistics. Non-fatal opioid and drug overdoses were obtained from diagnostic codes. Four sites provided cause-of-death data to identify fatal drug and opioid-related overdoses. Adjusted frailty regression was conducted on a propensity-weighted cohort to assess associations between duration of the final treatment episode and outcomes.The mortality rate after buprenorphine treatment was 1.82 per 100 person-years (n = 191 deaths). In regression analyses with 365 days as the reference group, treatment duration was not associated with all-cause mortality and drug overdose (P 0.05 for both). However, compared with 365 days of treatment, 91-180 days of treatment was associated with increased opioid overdose risk (hazard ratio = 2.94, 95% confidence interval = 1.11-7.79).Among patients who discontinue buprenorphine treatment, there appears to be no treatment duration period associated with a reduced risk for all-cause mortality. Patients who discontinue buprenorphine treatment after 91-180 days appear to be at heightened risk for opioid overdose compared with patients who discontinue after 365 days of treatment.

Objective Develop and implement a prescription opioid registry in 10 diverse health systems across the US and describe trends in prescribed opioids between 2012 and 2018. Materials and Methods Using electronic health record and claims data, we identified patients who had an outpatient fill for any prescription opioid, and/or an opioid use disorder diagnosis, between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2018. The registry contains distributed files of prescription opioids, benzodiazepines and other select medications, opioid antagonists, clinical diagnoses, procedures, health services utilization, and health plan membership. Rates of outpatient opioid fills over the study period, standardized to health system demographic distributions, are described by age, gender, and race/ethnicity among members without cancer. Results The registry includes 6 249 710 patients and over 40 million outpatient opioid fills. For the combined registry population, opioid fills declined from a high of 0.718 per member-year in 2013 to 0.478 in 2018, and morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) per fill declined from 985 MMEs per fill in 2012 to 758 MMEs in 2018. MMEs per member declined from 692 MMEs per member in 2012 to 362 MMEs per member in 2018. Conclusion This study established a population-based opioid registry across 10 diverse health systems that can be used to address questions related to opioid use. Initial analyses showed large reductions in overall opioid use per member among the combined health systems. The registry will be used in future studies to answer a broad range of other critical public health issues relating to prescription opioid use.

Background: Head and neck cancer treatment is complex, requiring timely, multidisciplinary coordination of care. Integrated care teams, multidisciplinary teams that work together, may improve quality and coordination of care, but can be at odds of patients’ ability to access care. Other variables, such as belonging to a racial minority or lower socioeconomic status have also been implicated in access to care. Treatment fragmentation, has been reported to increase cost of care and is associated with worse patient outcomes. However, its effect within a vertically integrated health system, with a salaried medical group, versus private practice, is unknown. This study aims to investigate the risk factors and effects of fragmentation among diverse patients with head and neck cancer treated within a vertically integrated health system. Methods: This retrospective cohort study investigates diverse patients with head and neck cancer treated from 2012-2019 undergoing ≥2 treatment modalities. Fragmentation was defined as receipt of treatment at >1 treatment facility. Most practice providers practiced out of a single location, here named “Main Campus”. Demographic, disease, and insurance characteristics were collected. Census tract-level socioeconomic status variables include median household income, education composite score, and census block group-level of area deprivation index (ADI) within Michigan. Patients were compared by time to treatment initiation, defined as days from diagnosis to receipt of first treatment modality. In patients undergoing surgery as a first modality of treatment, days from first treatment to second treatment modality was also compared between patients undergoing fragmented and unfragmented care. Results: Fragmentation occurred in 10.2% of head and neck cancer patients. Unfragmented care was associated with being African American (adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=0.22, 95% confidence interval (CI)= 0.03 to 0.76) and residence in census block with higher ADI (aOR=0.84/decile, 95% CI=0.75 to 0.94). African American patients were more frequently treated at the main campus for their first and second modality of treatments (n=104, 92.9% and n=103, 92.8%) compared to all other races (p Citation Format: Samantha M.D. Tam, Wan-Ting K. Su, Cara E. Cannella, Amy Tang, Katie A. Latack, Farah Elssis, Haythem Ali, Steven S. Chang, Andrew M. Popoff, Christine Neslund-Dudas, Brian Ahmedani, Christine C. Johnson. Treatment fragmentation and timely treatment in racially and socioeconomically diverse patients with head and neck cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A058.

Long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) is associated with increased risk for depression. It is not known if the frequency of opioid use during LTOT is associated with new-onset depression. We used Optum's de-identified Integrated Claims-Clinical dataset (2010-2018) to create a cohort of 5146 patients, 18 to 80 years of age, with an encounter or claims in the year before new LTOT. New LTOT was defined by90-day opioid use after remaining opioid free for 6 months. Opioid use frequency during the first 90 days of LTOT was categorized into occasional use (50% days covered), intermittent use (50% to80% days covered), frequent use (80% to90% days covered), and daily use (≥90% days covered). Propensity scores and inverse probability of exposure weighting controlled for confounding in models estimating risk for new-onset depression. Patients were on average 54.5 (SD ± 13.6) years of age, 55.7% were female, 72.5% were White, and 9.5% were African American. After controlling for confounding, daily users (hazard ratio = 1.40; 95% confidence interval: 1.14-1.73) and frequent users (hazard ratio = 1.34; 95% confidence interval: 1.05-1.71) were significantly more likely to develop new-onset depression compared with occasional users. This association remained after accounting for the contribution of post-index pain diagnoses and opioid use disorder. In LTOT, risk for new depression episodes is up to 40% greater in near-daily users compared with occasional users. Patients could reduce depression risk by avoiding opioid use on as many low pain days as possible. Repeated screening for depression during LTOT is warranted.

The All of Us Research Program was designed to enable broad-based precision medicine research in a cohort of unprecedented scale and diversity. Hypertension (HTN) is a major public health concern. The validity of HTN data and definition of hypertension cases in the All of Us (AoU) Research Program for use in rule-based algorithms is unknown. In this cross-sectional, population-based study, we compare HTN prevalence in the AoU Research Program to HTN prevalence in the 2015–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We used AoU baseline data from patient (age ≥ 18) measurements (PM), surveys, and electronic health record (EHR) blood pressure measurements. We retrospectively examined the prevalence of HTN in the EHR cohort using Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) codes and blood pressure medications recorded in the EHR. We defined HTN as the participant having at least 2 HTN diagnosis/billing codes on separate dates in the EHR data AND at least one HTN medication. We calculated an age-standardized HTN prevalence according to the age distribution of the U.S. Census, using 3 groups (18–39, 40–59, and ≥ 60). Among the 185,770 participants enrolled in the AoU Cohort (mean age at enrollment = 51.2 years) available in a Researcher Workbench as of October 2019, EHR data was available for at least one SNOMED code from 112,805 participants, medications for 104,230 participants, and 103,490 participants had both medication and SNOMED data. The total number of persons with SNOMED codes on at least two distinct dates and at least one antihypertensive medication was 33,310 for a crude prevalence of HTN of 32.2%. AoU age-adjusted HTN prevalence was 27.9% using 3 groups compared to 29.6% in NHANES. The AoU cohort is a growing source of diverse longitudinal data to study hypertension nationwide and develop precision rule-based algorithms for use in hypertension treatment and prevention research. The prevalence of hypertension in this cohort is similar to that in prior population-based surveys.

Introduction Patients with insomnia disorder are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Early evidence suggests that insomnia therapeutics may reduce suicidal ideation (SI). However, the role of digital insomnia therapeutics in both the alleviation and prevention of SI remains unclear. Methods A total of 658 community adults with DSM-5 insomnia disorder enrolled into a single-site RCT evaluating the efficacy of digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) relative to attention control. Before treatment, 126 patients endorsed SI, whereas 532 patients denied SI. First, we tested whether CBTI can reduce SI in patients with baseline SI. Second, we tested whether CBTI reduces risk for SI development in those without baseline SI. Results Among those with baseline SI, just 30.0% of CBTI patients reported SI after treatment, which was lower than the 54.5% of controls with posttreatment SI (OR=2.81, p=.006). Among those without baseline SI, CBTI did not reduce risk for developing SI after treatment (p=.681). However, a multivariate logit model regression odds for SI onto condition (p=.140) and posttreatment remission status (OR=5.68, p=.007) indicated that patients who remitted from insomnia exhibited a reduction in SI risk. Importantly, CBTI was associated with a 6.29 odds increase of insomnia remission relative to control. PRODCLIN estimation of the indirect effect indicated that CBTI prevents SI, but that the effect is fully mediated by the extent to which CBTI produces insomnia remission (αβ=-3.13=5, 95% CI=-5.28, -0.96). Conclusion Digital CBTI reduces risk for SI development in insomnia patients without pretreatment SI. These data support a role for digital insomnia therapeutics in SI prevention in this high-risk patient population. Moreover, digital CBTI reduces SI in insomnia patients with SI. These data indicate that digital CBTI can alleviate SI, but it possible that adjunct treatment directly targeting SI may enhance suicide risk reduction. Support (If Any) Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Background Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) have particularly high rates of chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) and are also more likely to receive prescription opioids for their pain. However, there have been no known studies published to date that have examined opioid treatment patterns among individuals with schizophrenia. Methods Using electronic medical record data across 13 Mental Health Research Network sites, individuals with diagnoses of MDD (N=65,750), BD (N=38,117) or schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N=12,916) were identified and matched on age, sex and Medicare status to controls with no documented mental illness. CNCP diagnoses and prescription opioid medication dispensings were extracted for the matched samples. Multivariate analyses were conducted to evaluate (1) the odds of receiving a pain-related diagnosis and (2) the odds of receiving opioids, by separate mental illness diagnosis category compared with matched controls, controlling for age, sex, Medicare status, race/ethnicity, income, medical comorbidities, healthcare utilization and chronic pain diagnoses. Results Multivariable models indicated that having a MDD (OR=1.90; 95% CI=1.85–1.95) or BD (OR=1.71; 95% CI=1.66–1.77) diagnosis was associated with increased odds of a CNCP diagnosis after controlling for age, sex, race, income, medical comorbidities and healthcare utilization. By contrast, having a schizophrenia diagnosis was associated with decreased odds of receiving a chronic pain diagnosis (OR=0.86; 95% CI=0.82– 0.90). Having a MDD (OR=2.59; 95% CI=2.44–2.75) or BD (OR=2.12; 95% CI=1.97–2.28) diagnosis was associated with increased odds of receiving chronic opioid medications, even after controlling for age, sex, race, income, medical comorbidities, healthcare utilization and chronic pain diagnosis; having a schizophrenia diagnosis was not associated with receiving chronic opioid medications. Conclusions Individuals with serious mental illness, who are most at risk for developing opioid-related problems, continue to be prescribed opioids more often than their peers without mental illness. Healthcare providers need to be especially conservative in prescribing opioids – or avoid opioid therapy altogether – for this population. Mental health clinicians may be particularly well-suited to lead pain assessment and management efforts for these patients.

Background The need for effectiveness and dissemination research is at least as great in mental health as in other areas of health care. The Mental Health Research Network aims to use the VDW for multi-site studies of mental disorder epidemiology, treatment patterns, or treatment effectiveness. We expect that the existing infrastructure is satisfactory in some areas, while others will need improvement or expansion. We present early results from validation studies of enrollment and pharmacy data on patterns of psychotherapeutic drug use.