Racial and ethnic discrimination and DSM-5 substance use disorders among U.S. adults.

Objective: Racial and ethnic discrimination is a risk factor for substance use among United States adults. However, whether discrimination is associated with substance use disorders (SUDs) overall and by race and ethnicity is less understood.

Methods: We used data from the 2012-2013 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III (n=35,355) and defined past-year discrimination as a summary scale (range: 0-4).

Social Network Barriers to Extended-Release Naltrexone Within Rural Appalachia: Perspectives from Justice-Involved Clients and Clinicians.

Background: Extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX, Vivitrol) is an effective, but underutilized, evidence-based treatment for people with opioid use disorder (POUD) who are incarcerated. Networks of family, friends, and clinicians serve as social influencers of health behaviors, including XR-NTX initiation, and are especially salient in Appalachia.

Objectives: Using a triangulation of perspectives, this study examined concordance between the social network themes that emerged from qualitative interviews with clinicians and POUD social network findings.

Description of implementing a mail-based overdose education and naloxone distribution program in community supervision settings during COVID-19.

Introduction: This study uses the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment (EPIS) model to retrospectively describe the mail-based overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) program developed in collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) for use in the HEALing Communities Study in Kentucky (HCS-KY) and details the reach of this innovative delivery model.

Methods: HCS-KY is a community-engaged cluster-randomized trial assessing the effects of implementing evidence-based practices, including OEND, on overdose death reduction across 16 communities highly impacted by the opioid epidemic in Kentucky. The study launch coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leveraging local knowledge to contextualize the opioid epidemic within HEALing Communities Study communities: A Photovoice protocol.

Since its inception 30 years ago, Photovoice has gained increasing popularity as a research method and more recently has been incorporated within randomized controlled trial (RCT) designs. Photovoice is a participatory action research method that pairs photography with focus group discussions to record community strengths and concerns, build critical consciousness, and reach policymakers. Adherence of Photovoice implementation to these original tenets of Photovoice varies.

Rapid jail-based implementation of overdose education and naloxone distribution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: People incarcerated in jails are highly impacted by the opioid epidemic, and overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) is an effective strategy to reduce opioid overdose deaths. This study examines barriers and facilitators of fast-track OEND implementation within the jails in the Wave 1 Kentucky counties of the HEALing Communities Study during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Meeting minutes with jail stakeholders were qualitatively coded using the Practical, Robust Implementation and Sustainability Model (PRISM) as the coding framework.