Abstract Background The ongoing opioid misuse epidemic, initially sparked by over-prescription, presents challenges in managing severe pain in Crohn’s disease (CD). Despite associated negative effects, such as narcotic bowel syndrome and susceptibility to chronic use, opioids are frequently prescribed for CD patients. However, data on the evolution of opioid use before and after the initial CD diagnosis in a European context are limited. Methods This nationwide cohort study utilized the Swedish Patient Register to identify adults with a first CD diagnosis between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2017, residing in Sweden at least two years before and three years after the diagnosis. For each CD patient, we included up to 10 reference individuals from the general population matched on birth year, sex, calendar year, and place of residence. Data on dispensed opioid prescriptions were retrieved from the National Prescribed Drug Register. Opioid use history was categorized into non-users (no dispensations), intermittent users (≥1 dispensation in 1–3 periods), and chronic users (≥1 dispensation in all periods) based on the four preceding six-month periods before the first CD diagnosis. Opioid use per six-month period was estimated from two years before to five years following CD diagnosis (corresponding index date for matched reference individuals) and coarsened exact matching was employed to account for confounding (birth year, sex, education, and history of psychiatric disorders and cancer). Results We included 12,539 incident CD patients and 116,073 matched reference individuals. During the two years before the first CD diagnosis, CD patients (and 3.9% vs 10.4% and 1.4%, respectively) were more often intermittent (22.3% vs 10.4%) or chronic (3.9% vs 1.4%) opioid users than matched reference individuals. Prior to diagnosis, opioid use per six-month period was twice as common among CD patients than in reference individuals. Following a peak in the first year after the diagnosis, the prevalence of dispensed opioids per six-month period stabilized at a three-fold level among CD patients (13.6%; 95% CI: 13.0, 14.3) compared with the reference individuals (5.5%; 95% CI: 5.4, 5.7) (Figure 1). The 6-month prevalence of opioid use five years after CD diagnosis was 7.6% (95% CI: 7.0, 8.2), 22.9% (95% CI: 21.1, 24.6), and 79.5.4% (95% CI: 73.2, 85.7) for CD patients classified as non-users, intermittent, or chronic users two years before diagnosis, respectively. Conclusion CD patients exhibited elevated opioid use two years before their initial diagnosis, which persisted at a three-fold level compared to matched reference individuals for five years post-diagnosis. This pattern persisted despite publicly-funded healthcare and modern CD therapy accessibility.