A national study of clinical discussions about cannabis use among Veteran patients prescribed opioids.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Veterans Health Administration tracks urine drug tests (UDTs) among patients on long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) and recommends discussing the health effects of cannabis use.

Objective

To determine the occurrence of cannabis-related discussions between providers and patients on LTOT during six months following UDT positive for cannabis, and examine factors associated with documenting cannabis use.

Design

We identified patients prescribed LTOT with a UDT positive for cannabis in 2019. We developed a text-processing tool to extract discussions around cannabis use from their charts.

Subjects

Twelve thousand seventy patients were included. Chart review was conducted on a random sample of 1,946 patients.

Main measures

The presence of a cannabis

SUBMITTER: Zaman T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10943860 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature