Evidence bolsters ‘Perfect Storm’ of opioid risks after TBI
After adjustment for other factors, “[P]ersons with TBI compared to those without had over 52 percent increased risk for using prescription opioids in the past year, and over 65 percent increased risk for prescription opioid misuse,” according to the report by Rachel Sayko Adams, PhD, MPH, of Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass. The JHTR special issue presents eight invited research papers providing evidence for the hypothesis linking a history of TBI to a unique pattern of increased vulnerability to pain and other interrelated risks for opioid use and its potential consequences, including overdose.
New data support ‘Perfect Storm’ hypothesis of opioid risks after TBI
The study included data on nearly 3,500 participants from a 2018 study of health risks among adults in Ohio. Overall 22.8 percent of participants said they had at least one TBI sometime in their lives. Of these individuals, more than two-thirds had had a TBI with loss of consciousness, most before age 20.
One-fourth of participants (25.5 percent) reported using a prescription opioid in the past year. About three percent met criteria for prescription opioid misuse – defined as using opioids more frequently or in higher doses than prescribed and/or using a prescription opioid not prescribed to the respondent. (The study did not address use of illicit opioids, such as heroin, following TBI – a gap in knowledge requiring further research.)
