Time-trends in cocaine, hallucinogen, amphetamine, and sedative/anxiolytic/hypnotic use disorder hospitalizations in rheumatic diseases: a national time-trends study

Musculoskeletal diseases (MSDs) are common in the general population, frequently associated with pain, functional limitation, and reduction in quality of life. Similarly, drug/substance use disorders are common in the general population. Recently, opioid drug use disorder has gained a lot of attention as a public health problem. To our knowledge, limited data exist regarding the non-opioid drug/substance use disorders in musculoskeletal diseases. This study’s objective was to examine the frequency and rates of common drug/substance use disorder hospitalizations in five MSDs, namely gout, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and low back pain. This was achieved by using the diagnostic codes for cocaine, hallucinogen, amphetamine, or ASH use disorder hospitalization in five MSDs in the US National Inpatient Sample from 1998 to 2014. Cocaine, hallucinogen, amphetamine, or ASH use disorder hospitalizations per 1 million NIS total hospitalizations for five MSDs in 2013–2014 were as follows, respectively: gout, 10.2, 0.1, 2.8, and 1.5; osteoarthritis, 21.4, 0.4, 5.9, and 7.7; fibromyalgia, 5.5, 0.1, 2.0, and 2.3; rheumatoid arthritis, 8.7, 0.4, 4.5, and 7.7, and low back pain, 16.2, 0.5, 7.3, and 7.5. The frequency and the rate of each drug use disorder hospitalization increased in each of the five MSDs from 1998 to 2014.