Hayes CJ, Krebs EE, Li C, et al. - A retrospective cohort study investigating the association between discontinuing chronic opioid therapy (COT) and diagnoses of substance use disorders (SUDs) and opioid-related adverse outcomes (AOs).

• Using data from fiscal years 2009 to 2015, comparison was performed between veterans with chronic pain on COT who discontinued opioid therapy vs those continuing COT.

• Researchers matched a total of 15,695 (75.4%) and 17,337 (76.6%) discontinuers with those continuing COT among the cohorts testing SUD and AO development, respectively.

• Decreased diagnosis for opioid-related adverse outcomes was observed in correlation with discontinuing patients from chronic opioid therapy.

• There appeared no conclusive association with substance use disorders.