Kratom Use in the US: Both a Regional Phenomenon and a White Middle-Class Phenomenon? Evidence From NSDUH 2019 and an Online Convenience Sample

Jeffrey M Rogers; Kirsten E Smith; Justin C Strickland; David H Epstein

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.789075

Kratom Use in the US: Both a Regional Phenomenon and a White Middle-Class Phenomenon? Evidence From NSDUH 2019 and an Online Convenience Sample

Front Pharmacol. 2021 Dec 20:12:789075. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.789075. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Jeffrey M Rogers¹, Kirsten E Smith¹, Justin C Strickland², David H Epstein¹

Affiliations

¹ Real-world Assessment, Prediction, and Treatment Unit, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, MD, United States.
² Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States.

Abstract

Kratom products available in the United States are becoming increasingly diverse both in terms of content and in terms of how they are marketed. Prior survey research indicates that kratom has been primarily used in the US to self-treat anxiety, depression, pain, fatigue, and substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms. Kratom is also well-known for its use as a short- or long-term full opioid agonist substitute. Therefore, use may be greater in regions particularly impacted by addiction to prescription opioids. Use may also be greater in demographic groups targeted by media outlets (such as specific podcasts) in which kratom is touted. Here, we aimed to determine whether lifetime and past-year kratom use were associated with region of residence and with being young, White, post-secondary educated, and employed. To strengthen confidence in our findings, we analyzed data from two sources: our own crowdsourced online convenience sample and the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). In our sample (N = 2,615), 11.1% reported lifetime and 6.7% reported past-year kratom use, and the odds of kratom use were higher among people who were White, younger, at least high school educated, employed, and above the poverty line, as well as those reporting nonmedical opioid use, past-year SUD, or lifetime SUD treatment; residence was not a significant predictor. In NSDUH data, suburban residence and other demographic factors, concordant with those from the crowdsourced sample, were associated with kratom use. Taken together, the findings support a general "White middle-class suburban" profile of the modal kratom user, but more research is needed to understand it. In the interim, focus should be on our finding that lifetime nonmedical opioid use was associated with an up to five times greater likelihood of past-year kratom use, suggesting that drug-use history may presently be the strongest predictor of kratom use.

Keywords: kratom; mitragyna speciosa; opioids; rural drug use; substance use disorder; substance use disorder treatment.