ArticlePharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2016
New depression diagnosis following prescription of codeine, hydrocodone or oxycodone.
Article in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Peripartum buprenorphine and oxycodone exposure impair maternal behavior and increase neuroinflammation in new mother rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Blocking IL-17A prevents oxycodone-induced depression-like effects and elevation of IL-6 levels in the ventral tegmental area and reduces oxycodone-derived physical dependence in rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Article
- Opioid poisoning cases aged 50+ in the 2015-2020 National Poisoning Data System: suspected suicides versus unintentional poisoning and other intentional misuse/abuse.Drug and chemical toxicology · 2022Article
- Prescription Opioid Use and Risk for Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety and Stress-Related Disorders: A Multivariable Mendelian Randomization Analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2021Article
- Oxycodone, Hydromorphone, and the Risk of Suicide: A Retrospective Population-Based Case-Control Study.Drug safety · 2020Article
- The Prescription Opioids and Depression Pathways Cohort Study.Journal of psychiatry and brain science · 2020Article
- Long-term use of hydrocodone vs. oxycodone in primary care.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2019Article
- Molecular Adaptations in the Rat Dorsal Striatum and Hippocampus Following Abstinence-Induced Incubation of Drug Seeking After Escalated Oxycodone Self-Administration.Molecular neurobiology · 2019Article
- General practitioners and management of chronic noncancer pain: a cross-sectional survey of influences on opioid deprescribing.Journal of pain research · 2019Article
- Characteristics of new depression diagnoses in patients with and without prior chronic opioid use.Journal of affective disorders · 2017Article
- Opioids and Chronic Pain: Where Is the Balance?Current oncology reports · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeLonger duration of prescription opioid use is associated with risk of major depression after controlling for daily morphine equivalent dose and pain. It is not known if risk of depression varies as a function of the type of opioid prescribed.
methodsA retrospective cohort design was used to model onset of new depression diagnosis among 11 462 Veterans Health Administration (VA) patients who were prescribed only codeine, only hydrocodone or only oxycodone for >30 days. Patients were free of prevalent opioid use and depression at baseline (2000-2001). Follow-up was 2002-2012. Propensity scores and weighting were used to balance covariates across opioid type. Cox-proportional hazard models were computed, using weighted data and additional adjustment for morphine equivalent dose (MED), duration of use, and pain after opioid initiation, to estimate the risk of new depression diagnosis among patients prescribed only codeine, only oxycodone vs. those prescribed only hydrocodone.
resultsAfter controlling for confounding, we observed that patients prescribed codeine, compared to hydrocodone, were significantly more likely to have a new depression diagnosis (HR = 1.27; 95%CI: 1.12-1.43). Oxycodone was significantly associated with onset of new depression diagnosis when exposure was modeled as total days exposed in post-hoc analysis, but not when exposure was duration of incident period of use.
conclusionsAlthough codeine is a less potent opioid, after controlling for MED, chronic use of this agent is associated with nearly a 30% greater risk of depression compared to hydrocodone. Additional research is needed to determine the mechanisms for this association. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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