Reduced urinary opioid levels from pain management patients associated with marijuana use.
Aim: Marijuana use has been postulated to modulate opioid use, dependence and withdrawal. Broad target drug testing results provide a unique perspective to identify any potential interaction between marijuana use and opioid use. Materials & methods: Using a dataset of approximately 800,000 urine drug test results collected from pain management patients of a time from of multiple years, creatinine corrected opioid levels were evaluated to determine if the presence of the primary marijuana marker 11-nor-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) was associated with statistical differences in excreted opioid concentrations. Results & conclusion: For each of the opioids investigated (codeine, morphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, fentanyl and buprenorphine), marijuana use was associated with statistically significant lower urinary opiate levels than in samples without indicators of marijuana use.
['Goggin|Melissa M|MM|', 'Shahriar|Breane J|BJ|', 'Stead|Andy|A|', 'Janis|Gregory C|GC|']
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid D013759:Dronabinol D006801:Humans D000074609:Marijuana Use D010146:Pain D059408:Pain Management D012189:Retrospective Studies
opioids pain management marijuana