Methamphetamine use driving opioid use, overdoses in rural communities

The widespread co-use of methamphetamine and opioids were associated with nonfatal overdoses among drug users in rural United States communities, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open.

“Among people who use drugs in rural communities, methamphetamine use is pervasive. This has been a West Coast problem for a long time, but now we see methamphetamine use in rural communities across the United States,” Todd P. Korthuis, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, said in a release from the university accompanying the study.

Korthuis and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional, multistate study of rural communities in the U.S. to estimate the prevalence of methamphetamine use and how it correlates with people who use drugs, while determining whether its use is associated with increased rates of overdoses.

The analysis included a total of 3,048 participants (57% male; 85% white; mean age, 36 years). Participants were included if they reported any injection drug use or non-injection opioid use to get high in the past 30 days.

A total of 1,878 participants (63%) reported the co-use of methamphetamine and opioids, followed by 702 participants (24%) who reported the sole use of opioids, and 390 participants (13%) who reported the sole use of methamphetamines. The estimated weighted prevalence of methamphetamine use was 79% (95% CI, 57%-91%).

The number of nonfatal overdoses was greatest in those who used both methamphetamines and opioids (395 participants, 22%), compared with those who solely used opioids (99 participants, 14%) and those who solely used methamphetamines (23, 6%).

Greater odds of nonfatal overdoses were linked with the co-use of methamphetamines and opioids compared with opioid use alone (aOR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.08-1.94) and methamphetamine use alone (aOR, 3.26; 95% CI, 2.06-5.14).

“Co-use of methamphetamine and opioids is associated with a big increased risk of overdose in rural communities,” Korthuis said in the release. “Some people view rural areas as immune to problems like drug use and overdose, but they’re not. There are deaths of despair everywhere, but our rural communities have been hard hit.”

References:

Meth use drives overdoes epidemic in rural U.S. communities. https://news.ohsu.edu/2022/08/15/meth-use-drives-overdose-epidemic-in-rural-u-s-communities. Published: Aug. 15, 2022; Accessed: Aug. 15, 2022.