Lack of Association of Cannabis Use with Opioid Outcomes among Opioid-Dependent Youth
Kevin P. Hill, M.D., M.H.S.a,b, Heather E. Bennett, B.A.a, Margaret L. Griffin, Ph.D.a,b,, Hilary S. Connery, M.D., Ph.D.a,b,
Garrett M. Fitzmaurice, Sc. D.a,b, Geetha Subramaniam, M.D.c, George E. Woody, M.D.d, Roger D. Weiss, M.D.a,b
a Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA
b Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
c Center for Clinical Trials Network, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD
d Department of Psychiatry, Treatment Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
•Cannabis use is common among opioid-dependent patients, but studies of itsassociation with treatment outcome are mixed (Budney et al. 1998, Dupont andSaylor 1989).
•In this secondary data analysis, we assessed the association of cannabis use withopioid treatment outcome.
•Overall, cannabis use had no association with opioid use over 12 weeks in this sample ofopioid-dependent youth.
•While cannabis use remains potentially harmful, it was not a predictor of poor opioidtreatment outcome as measured by opioid urine drug screens in our sample.
This was a secondary data analysis from National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical TrialsNetwork Study CTN-0010, “Buprenorphine/Naloxone-Facilitated Rehabilitation for OpioidDependent Adolescents/Young Adults” (Woody et al. 2008).
•Opioid-dependent participants (n = 152) aged 15-21 years received psychosocialtreatments and were randomized to one of two treatment conditions:
•2 week detox with buprenorphine/naloxone
•12 week course of buprenorphine/naloxone
•Assessment of drug use by self-report and urine drug screen occurred during thescreening, baseline, and treatment phase of the study (weeks 1-12).
•Multivariate analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between cannabisuse and opioid use, adjusting for treatment condition.
Background and Aim
Results
Method
Results
Conclusions
Table 1. Odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval(CI), from logistic regression analysis of opioid use(throughout treatment) on cannabis use.
CannabisOR 95% CI p
Age of initiation, years.96 .86-1.08 .53
Days used at baseline1.99 .96-1.01 .34
Concurrent use21.56 .86-2.80 .14
1 Past 30 days, by self-report
2 Urine screen
Supported by grants K99 DA029115 (KPH), K24 DA022288 (RDW), and CTN U10 DA15831 (RDW, HSC) from theNational Institute on Drug Abuse, as well as the Adam Corneel Young Investigator Fellowship from McLean Hospital to Dr.Hill.
•Participants reported a median of 3.0 days (range=0-30) cannabis use in the pastmonth; half (50.3%; n=77) reported occasional use, one-third reported no use (33.1%;n=50), and one-sixth reported daily cannabis use (16.6%; n=25) (FIGURE 1).
•Median lifetime cannabis use was 4.0 years (range=0-11) and median age of initiation ofuse was 15.0 years (range 9-21) (FIGURE 2).
•Participants were able to significantly reduce opioid use after initiating treatment beforetheir level of opioid use stabilized; however, cannabis use was constant throughout.
•Neither past cannabis use (age of initiation and use in the month prior to baseline), norconcurrent use, was associated with level of opioid use (TABLE 1).
References
Budney, A.J., Radonovich, K.J., Higgins, S.T., Wong, C. J., 1998. Adults seeking treatment for marijuana dependence: A comparison with cocaine-dependent treatment seekers. Exp. Clin. Psychopharmacology 6, 419-426.
DuPont, R.L., Saylor, K.E., 1989. Marijuana and benzodiazepine in patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment. JAMA 261, 3409.
Woody, G.E., Poole, S.A., Subramaniam, G., Dugosh, K., Bogenschutz, M., Abbott, P., Patkar, A., Publicker, M., McCain, K., Potter, J.S., Forman, R.,Vetter, V., McNicholas, L., Blaine, J., Lynch, K.G., Fudala, P., 2008. Extended vs. short-term buprenorphine-naloxone for treatment of opioid-addictedyouth. JAMA 300, 2003-2011.
