Pharmacogenetics of opioid substitution treatment response

Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) has become increasingly concerning in North America. In North America, 3.9% of the population has been reported to use opioids, compared to 0.7% of people globally. The demographics in individuals living with OUD has shifted, from young male heroin users to users who are more likely to be older and have been introduced to the drug via prescription. Thus, it is important to determine what factors contribute to the development of OUD. Our interest lies in the possibility of the influence of an underlying genetic predisposition for the development of OUD. Our current study, the Pharmacogenetics of Opioid Substitution Treatment Response (POST), is a prospective cohort study which has collected genetic data on over 2,400 individuals receiving medication assisted treatment for an OUD. We aim to combine our current genetic data with participants from the CLSA dataset to perform a case-control genome-wide analysis to identify genetic variants associated with an OUD.