TY - JOUR AB - Previous studies have shown an overlap between opioid misuse and mental health. One theory that explains the relationship between mental health and opioid addiction is that people with depression and other mental health conditions may self-medicate with opioids to alleviate their symptoms. To address this question, I used data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey to examine the effect of anxiety and depression on opioid use in the past year. I used logistic regression models with estimated odds ratios and controlled for race, sex, and age. Overall, I found that depression level, anxiety level, anxiety frequency, and taking medication for anxiety significantly affected opioid use in the past twelve months. As expected, higher levels of anxiety and depression correlated with increased opioid medication use. However, the correlation between anxiety and depression indicates that respondents who took medication for depression and anxiety were more likely to have used opioids in the past year. This result thus contradicts the hypothesis that people with depression and other mental health conditions may inappropriately self-medicate with opioids to alleviate their symptoms. AU - Isabel Zhang DA - 2023/3// DO - 10.3998/umurj.3778 IS - 0 VL - 16 PB - Michigan Publishing Services PY - 2023 TI - Confronting Two Crises: The Effect of Mental Health Disorders on Opioid Use T2 - University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Journal UR - https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/umurj/article/id/3778/ ER -