A Retrospective Study of Psychotropic Drug Use and Prescription Opioid Initiation Among Older Adults

Individuals with mental health problems may be more vulnerable to using prescription opioids than their counterparts. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the initiation of prescription opioids in older adults who used psychotropic drugs compared with those who did not. The authors used a retrospective cohort design and included a sample of older adults enrolled in Pennsylvania's Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly program who did not use prescription opioids in 2013. Using pharmacy claims, patients who used anxiolytics/sedatives/hypnotics (n = 13,512) or antidepressants (n = 17,492) between October and December 2013 were identified and compared with those who did not use anxiolytics/sedatives/hypnotics (n = 114,091) or antidepressants (n = 110,111) during that period, to determine the incidence of prescription opioid use in 2014. Chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regressions were performed for analyses. Compared with patients who did not use anxiolytics/sedatives/hypnotics, those who used were more likely to initiate prescription opioids (15.0% versus 22.0%, P