Increases in methamphetamine use among heroin treatment admissions in the United States, 2008–17

Background and Aims Due to their small sample sizes, geographic specificity and limited examination of socio‐demographic characteristics, recent studies of methamphetamine use among people using heroin in the United States are limited in their ability to identify national and regional trends and to characterize populations at risk for using heroin and methamphetamine. This study aimed to examine trends and correlates of methamphetamine use among heroin treatment admissions in the United States. Design Longitudinal analysis of data from the 2008 to 2017 Treatment Episode Data Set. Descriptive statistics, trend analyses and multivariable logistic regression were used to examine characteristics associated with methamphetamine use among heroin treatment admissions. Setting United States. Participants Treatment admissions of people aged ≥ 12 years whose primary substance of use is heroin. Measurements Primary measurement was heroin treatment admissions involving methamphetamine. Secondary measurements were demographics of sex, age, race/ethnicity, US census region, living arrangement and employment status. Findings The percentage of primary heroin treatment admissions reporting methamphetamine use increased each year from 2.1% in 2008 to 12.4% in 2017, a relative percentage increase of 490% and an annual percentage change (APC) of 23.4% (P