Including Community Partners in the Development and Adaptation of Intervention Strategies to Prevent Initiation or Escalation of Opioid Misuse.

Current literature lacks clear examples of how to engage with communities in the development of opioid misuse interventions for diverse populations and across various settings. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative (HEAL) Prevention Cooperative (HPC) research projects work collaboratively with communities to develop and adapt their opioid misuse interventions to increase both feasibility and sustainability. Ten HPC projects were selected to receive NIH funding and are required to have partnerships with communities where their intervention is being conducted.

"If It Didn't Get Reported, It Didn't Happen": Current Nonfatal Overdose Reporting Practices among Nontraditional Reporters in Texas.

Drug overdose deaths in Texas have been accelerating in recent years with an increase of 33% in the 12 months leading up to December 2020. Accurate counts of nonfatal overdoses - including associated aspects of overdose, such as substances involved, demographic information, and reversal agents administered is critical to increase timely and adequate response to individuals and communities in need. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with harm reduction workers across four Texas counties to understand existing methods of reporting overdoses, naloxone dissemination/administration, and recommendations for improving overdose surveillance.

A qualitative exploration of unintentional versus intentional exposure to fentanyl among people who use drugs in Austin, TX.

Background: The prevalence of deaths involving synthetic opioids has historically been lower in Texas than most U.S. states but more than quadrupled from January 2020 to January 2022.

Examining the Relationship between Social Connection and Opioid Misuse: A Systematic Review.

Methods: We used a Boolean search strategy of PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase to identify eligible publications from January 1990 to March 2020 and narrative analysis to synthesize the evidence.

Results: The database search identified 1267 independent citations; 29 publications met inclusion criteria. Nearly all the studies demonstrated high risk of bias, most often due to selection and confounding bias.