International Overdose Awareness Day

Addiction Science & Clinical Practice

Factors associated with willingness to wear an electronic overdose detection device
North America is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. Although take-home naloxone and other measures have been an effective strategy to reduce overdoses, many events are unwitnessed and mortality remains high amongst those using drugs alone. While wearable devices that can detect and alert others of an overdose are being developed, willingness of people who use drugs to wear such a device has not been described.

Physicians’ satisfaction with providing buprenorphine treatment
Buprenorphine is a critically important treatment for addressing the opioid epidemic, but there are virtually no studies of physicians’ job satisfaction with providing buprenorphine.

BMC Health Services Research

User-centered design of contingency management for implementation in opioid treatment programs: a qualitative study
Contingency management is one of the only behavioral interventions shown to be effective for the treatment of opioid use disorders when delivered alone and in combination with pharmacotherapy. Despite extensive empirical support, the uptake in community settings remains abysmally low. 

BMC Public Health

Emergency department encounters for opioid abuse, adverse events, poisoning, and dependence among members of a community-based health insurance plan—Central Texas, 2016–2018
The United States appears to be in the midst of an opioid epidemic. National data indicate a rise in emergency department visits for opioid-related causes over the past decade. This data, while important in helping to explain the magnitude of the epidemic nationally offers only a glimpse of what can be expected to occur locally. 

Naloxone urban legends and the opioid crisis: what is the role of public health?
This article analyzes one set of media accounts – stories of misuse of naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote distributed to people who use drugs – through the lens of social science scholarship on urban legends. We suggest that these stories have met a public need to feel a sense of safety in uncertain times, but function to reinforce societal views of people who use drugs as undeserving of support and resources.

Harm Reduction Journal

Justice involvement patterns, overdose experiences, and naloxone knowledge among men and women in criminal justice diversion addiction treatment
Persons in addiction treatment are likely to experience and/or witness drug overdoses following treatment and thus could benefit from overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) programs. Diverting individuals from the criminal justice system to addiction treatment represents one treatment engagement pathway, yet OEND needs among these individuals have not been fully described.

Prospective client survey and participatory process ahead of opening a mobile drug consumption room in Lisbon
Ahead of opening Portugal’s first mobile drug consumption room (MDCR) in Lisbon, information from People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) and local community members was necessary to determine current needs and shape the intervention. A participatory and peer-led process was ensured at all stages of data gathering and planning of the intervention.

Health & Justice

Confronting the opioid epidemic: public opinion toward the expansion of treatment services in Virginia
Public opinion polls have consistently shown Americans prefer treatment over arrest policies for opioid users. As the opioid epidemic remains a major health problem in the United States, it is important to determine the type of treatment policies the public would support. Theoretically, government should take into consideration the opinion of its constituents when deciding how to act. As such, the 2018 Virginia Commonwealth Public Policy Poll determined levels of support for the expansion of community-based treatment in one’s community.

Implementation Science

Sustaining alcohol and opioid use disorder treatment in primary care: a mixed methods study
This study informs the implementation science field about what factors are important for the sustainability of substance use disorder treatment provision within primary care clinics.

Injury Epidemiology

Associations between implementation of Project Lazarus and opioid analgesic dispensing and buprenorphine utilization in North Carolina, 2009–2014
Project Lazarus is a seven-strategy, community-coalition-based intervention designed to reduce opioid overdose and dependence. This study examined the association between PL implementation and 1) overall dispensing rate of opioid analgesics, and 2) utilization of buprenorphine.

International Journal for Equity in Health

Perceived barriers to methadone maintenance treatment among Iranian opioid users
This is the first study that qualitatively presents the obstacles to attendance and adherence to methadone maintenance treatment programs as perceived by Iranian opioid-dependent patients.

Israel Journal of Health Policy Research

Harm reduction when it’s for our own kids: comment on Hagit Bonny-Noach, “The evolution of Israeli public policy for drug-using backpackers
Hagit Bonny-Noach notes the challenging history of illicit substance use among Israeli backpackers. Few Israeli practices are more normative than the backpacking-trip as a rite of passage. Unsurprisingly, backpacking in far-off locales provides occasion to experiment with the various intoxicating experiences young adult life has to offer.

Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy

Drug-induced prolonged corrected QT interval in patients with methadone and opium overdose
Iran is a country with the highest rate of opioid addiction in the world. The most commonly used opioid in Iran is opium, and methadone is in second place. The trend of drug use has changed from opium to methadone from 2006 to 2011. Presence of a large number of addicted people and methadone maintenance therapy clinics make methadone readily available in Iran. Therefore, evaluation of the epidemiological characteristic of methadone toxicity and its effects on the heart is essential.

Lessons learned from the opioid crisis across the pillars of the Canadian drugs and substances strategy
Canada is facing an urgent challenge to reduce the harms associated with opioids: from January 2016 to December of 2018, more than 11,500 individuals lost their lives due to opioid related harms. This review examines responses to the opioid crisis thus far, the lessons learned from these initiatives and the knowledge gaps that still need to be addressed across the four pillar model adopted by the CDSS.