A genome-wide association, polygenic risk score and sex study on opioid use disorder treatment outcomes

Opioid use disorder continues to be a health concern with a high rate of opioid related deaths occurring worldwide. Medication Assisted Treatments (MAT) have been shown to reduce opioid withdrawal, cravings and opioid use, however variability exists in individual’s treatment outcomes. Sex-specific differences have been reported in opioid use patterns, polysubstance use and health and social functioning. Candidate gene studies investigating methadone dose as an outcome have identified several candidate genes and only five genome-wide associations studies have been conducted for MAT outcomes. This study aimed to identify genetic variants associated with MAT outcomes through genome-wide association study (GWAS) and test the association between genetic variants previously associated with methadone dose through a polygenic risk score (PRS). Study outcomes include: continued opioid use, relapse, methadone dose and opioid overdose. No genome-wide significance SNPs or sex-specific results were identified. The PRS identified statistically significant results (p < 0.05) for the outcome of methadone dose (R2 = 3.45 × 10–3). No other PRS was statistically significant. This study provides evidence for association between a PRS and methadone dose. More research on the PRS to increase the variance explained is needed before it can be used as a tool to help identify a suitable methadone dose within this population.