Associations between Public Health Indicators and Injecting Prescription Opioids by Prescription Opioid Abusers in Substance Abuse Treatment

Objective: To determine what, if any, public health and societal impacts are associated specifically with injection of prescription opioids.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Setting: Five hundred forty treatment facilities in 35 states across the United States performing Addiction Severity Index-Multimedia Version (ASI-MV) assessments.

Participants: Adult patients (29,459) who reported past 30-day abuse of any prescription opioid on the ASI-MV assessment between January 2007 and January 2011. Main outcome measures: The public health indicators selected for this study were liver disease, HIV/AIDS status, recent visit to an emergency room, treatment for pain, treatment for overdosing, homelessness, residence with alcohol/substance abuser, and unemployment.

Results: Prescription opioid injection was significantly associated with health problems, psychosocial problems, and utilization of medical services.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates an approach to measure the potential impact of injecting prescription opioids on public health indicators. Findings indicate a positive association between injection of prescription opioids and public health indicators suggesting a need for prescription opioid formulations that may inhibit injection of these medications.