Psychiatric Comorbidity in Research on Medications for Opioid Use Disorder: A Systematic Review.

Introduction: Co-occurring psychiatric conditions are common in opioid use disorder (OUD). This review summarizes findings on the effects of co-occurring conditions on OUD outcomes and changes in psychiatric symptoms during medication treatment for OUD.

Methods: The initial search yielded 6,419 articles from PubMed, Embase, Health & Medical Collection, CINAHL, APA PsycINFO, and Medline databases, and 76 of which were eligible for study inclusion. All articles were coded by independent raters, and consensus was used for the final results.

Results: Most of the identified studies reported no effect of baseline mental health diagnoses or symptoms on substance use or treatment retention. Studies that examined changes in psychiatric symptoms over time largely reported improvement in mental health during medication treatment.

Conclusions: While there is some evidence that mental health symptoms improve during treatment, medications for OUD are likely insufficient on their own for addressing co-occurring mental health conditions.