Opioid Use in Pediatric-Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have an inflamed digestive tract and experience diarrhea, fatigue, and abdominal pain. Youth with IBD are six times more likely to take opioids than youth without IBD. We are currently in the midst of an opioid crisis. In 2016, there were almost 3000 deaths related to opioid use in Canada. This increased to nearly 4000 deaths in 2017. Since 2001, opioid-related deaths have increased by 345% in the United States. IBD patients taking opioids have a poorer quality of life, regardless of how severe their IBD is. I will use health administrative data housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) to (1) examine trends in opioid prescriptions for children and young adults with and without IBD; (2) identify characteristics of patients who are more likely to take opioids; and (3) evaluate the impact of opioid use on use of health care services, IBD-related surgeries, addiction services, and death. Understanding patterns and the impact of opioid use will allow for creation of strategies to decrease opioid use in IBD and support ICES in their mission to improve health and health care through data and discovery.

Faculty Supervisor:

Eric Benchimol

Student:

Ellen Kuenzig

Partner:

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program: