Rising Prevalence of Comorbid Alcohol and Opioid Use Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States

Excerpt

National surveys reveal changing patterns of alcohol use among adolescents and young adults (AYA) over the past decade, toward lower use overall, but sharply rising levels of high intensity use.¹ During this time, rates of opioid misuse and mortality have risen dramatically among AYA.² Because both alcohol and opioids are central nervous system depressants, concomitant use of alcohol and opioids poses heightened risk of respiratory depression and overdose. Alcohol is involved in over 20% of opioid-related overdose deaths,³ and co-occurring alcohol use disorder (AUD) significantly increases the risk of all-cause mortality among opioid use disorder (OUD) patients.⁴ Furthermore, dual diagnosis of AUD and OUD complicates treatment for either condition alone.⁵ We examined the magnitude and trends of co-occurring diagnoses of AUD and OUD among AYA nationwide to quantify problems within routinely collected healthcare administrative claims data. …