Article
Emergency Medicine
Daniel J. McCabe, Rachel D. Walsh, Peter K. Georgakakos, Joshua B. Radke, Bryan Z. Wilson
Summary: This case report describes a patient with Flecainide overdose who experienced life-threatening symptoms and required multiple treatments. Serial serum and urine samples showed a prolonged toxic concentration of Flecainide.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Emily J. Tweed, Alastair H. Leyland, David S. Morrison, S. Vittal Katikireddi
Summary: This study used administrative data to conduct a unique population study of residents in Glasgow, Scotland, and found that experiences of social disadvantage are common. The study revealed that homelessness, justice involvement, opioid dependence, and psychosis are common forms of disadvantage, with the highest impact on men and residents in deprived areas. The study suggests that the methods used to analyze this data offer opportunities to evaluate the impact of policy and service changes on health.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
(2023)
Article
Substance Abuse
Jaleh Gholami, Shahab Baheshmat, Yasna Rostam-Abadi, Marziyeh Hamzehzadeh, Ramin Mojtabai, Afarin Rahimi-Movaghar, Masoumeh Amin-Esmaeili
Summary: In Iran, opioid use and opioid use disorder are associated with increased mortality and other adverse outcomes.
Article
Substance Abuse
Katarina Jones, Dana Bernson, Katherine T. Fillo, Amy L. Bettano
Summary: This study aims to create a new framework for emergency medical service (EMS) opioid-related incidents (ORIs) to accurately describe the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts. By categorizing the data, the study reveals new trend details and strains on the EMS system. Over half of the ORIs were acute overdose, followed by intoxication, other ORIs, withdrawal, and dead on arrival. The study also found differences in naloxone administration between the categories. Overall, the findings improve dataset linkage and interstate rate comparisons.
Article
Substance Abuse
Wen Qi Gan, Stuart A. Kinner, Tonia L. Nicholls, Chloe G. Xavier, Karen Urbanoski, Leigh Greiner, Jane A. Buxton, Ruth E. Martin, Katherine E. McLeod, Hasina Samji, Seonaid Nolan, Louise Meilleur, Roshni Desai, Soha Sabeti, Amanda K. Slaunwhite
Summary: The study revealed a significant association between prior incarceration and overdose-related death, with those with a history of incarceration being 4.04 times more likely to die from drug overdose compared to those without. This association was stronger for females, individuals without substance use disorder diagnoses, and those without dispensation of opioids or benzodiazepines for pain.
Article
Substance Abuse
Antoine Chaillon, Chrianna Bharat, Jack Stone, Nicola Jones, Louisa Degenhardt, Sarah Larney, Michael Farrell, Peter Vickerman, Matthew Hickman, Natasha K. Martin, Annick Borquez
Summary: The opioid agonist treatment (OAT) program in New South Wales, Australia has substantially reduced population-level overdose and all-cause mortality over the past 20 years, partially due to high retention rates. Studies showed an impact on reducing overdose and other cause mortality among the cohort by 52.8% and 26.6%, respectively, with estimates of deaths averted and life-years gained per 100 person-years on OAT. Additionally, prison OAT with post-release OAT-linkage accounted for a significant percentage of all deaths averted by the program.
Article
Pediatrics
Richa Lavingia, Ealing Mondragon, Nina McFarlane-Johansson, Rohit P. Shenoi
Summary: By implementing intervention measures based on 4 key drivers, the study successfully reduced opioid prescriptions for children with fractures and cutaneous abscesses, increased safe opioid storage and disposal discharge instructions, and enrolled all emergency department physicians in the prescription drug monitoring program.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Brett R. Harris
Summary: Deaths from overdose, mainly driven by opioids, have seen a dramatic increase over the past decade. Despite guidance on safe prescribing and treatment, overdose deaths continue to rise. Suicide prevention is seen as a strategy to address this issue, with suicide rates closely linked to opioid use disorder also on the rise.
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Carolyn Sufrin, Camille T. Kramer, Mishka Terplan, Kevin Fiscella, Sarah Olson, Kristin Voegtline, Carl Latkin
Summary: This study assessed the availability of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) for pregnant individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) in US jails. The results showed that although most jails continued to provide medication for individuals who were receiving treatment before incarceration, few jails initiated MOUD and most medication-providing jails discontinued MOUD during the postpartum period.
Article
Substance Abuse
Rachel S. Wightman, Jeanmarie Perrone, Rachel Scagos, Benjamin D. Hallowell, Maxwell Krieger, Yu Li, Alyson J. McGregor, Lewis S. Nelson, Brandon D. L. Marshall
Summary: Analyzing opioid-related drug overdose deaths in Rhode Island from 2016 to 2019 revealed significant sex differences in drug exposures. Women were more likely than men to be exposed to benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, and antidepressants, and they were more likely to have had contact with the healthcare system prior to their death.
DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
(2021)
Article
Emergency Medicine
Austin S. Kilaru, Manqing Liu, Ravi Gupta, Jeanmarie Perrone, M. Kit Delgado, Zachary F. Meisel, Margaret Lowenstein
Summary: After opioid-related ED encounters, a small proportion of commercially-insured patients filled prescriptions for naloxone. Patients with heroin overdose, recent prescriptions for opioid analgesics or buprenorphine were more likely to obtain naloxone. The rate of filling naloxone prescriptions was higher in 2018 compared to 2016.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Bradley D. Stein, Rosanna Smart, Christopher M. Jones, Flora Sheng, David Powell, Mark Sorbero
Summary: This study examined naloxone co-prescribing in long-term opioid therapy episodes and found that the rate of co-prescribing is low overall, with variations based on different individual and community characteristics.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Substance Abuse
Julie O'Donnell, R. Matt Gladden, Mbabazi Kariisa, Christine L. Mattson
Summary: Integrating medical examiner/coroner report data can improve identification of specific drugs contributing to overdose deaths and enhance overdose intervention targeting for better outcomes.
Article
Psychiatry
Zakary Doherty, Anselm Wong, Jane Hayman, Shaun Greene
Summary: Overall, the rates of emergency department presentations for antidepressant overdose remained stable during the study period. However, there were significant increases in both emergency department presentations and poisons centre calls among younger age groups. This highlights the need for interventions to prevent intentional overdose in younger populations.
AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Carlos Blanco, Melanie M. Wall, Mark Olfson
Summary: The quality and timeliness of US surveillance data often limits data-driven approaches, calling for investments in new infrastructure to prioritize improvements in data timeliness, representativeness, and flexibility while protecting the privacy of survey participants. The use of simulations, distributed research and data networks, alternative data sources, and blockchain technology could lead to an improved and more user-centered surveillance system.
MOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
(2022)