Study reveals high prevalence of alcohol, opioid use among patients with Crohn’s disease in U.S.
Newly diagnosed people with Crohn’s disease (CD) in the United States are more likely to experience drug and alcohol use compared with the general population, according to a recent study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers. The study, which used data from Medicaid between 2010 and 2019, found that 16.3% of enrollees had some form of substance use at the time of being diagnosed with CD, with alcohol and opioids being the most commonly used substances.
The researchers analyzed data from 37,323 Medicaid enrollees, and results revealed that 16.3% of patients newly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease reported some form of substance use. Alcohol and opioids were the two most commonly used substances (8% respectively), followed by cannabis (4.3%), cocaine (2.3%) and amphetamine (1.3%). Tobacco use was not included in the study.
Per the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 5.8% of the general population over the age of 12 reported heavy alcohol use, defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women during the same session on at least five of the past 30 days. NSDUH also reported that 3.7% of the U.S. population over age 12 stated opioid misuse in the previous year.
