Naloxone administration and survival in overdoses involving opioids and stimulants: An analysis of law enforcement data from 63 Pennsylvania counties.

Background: In consideration of rising opioid-stimulant deaths in the United States, this study explored rates of naloxone administration and survival in suspected opioid overdoses with, versus without, stimulants co-involved.

Methods: The study analyzed 26,635 suspected opioid-involved overdoses recorded by law enforcement/first-responders in the Pennsylvania Overdose Information Network in 63 Pennsylvania counties, January 2018-July 2024. All measures, including suspected drug involvement, were based on first-responder assessment/report.

Characterizing prescription opioid, heroin, and fentanyl initiation trajectories: A qualitative study.

We understand the current crisis of overdose deaths to be driven by widespread opioid use, characterized by distinct 'waves' of drug use. The first wave was driven by prescription opioids, the second by heroin, and the third by illicit, non-pharmaceutical fentanyl and fentanyl analogues (henceforth, fentanyl). The purpose of this study is to describe opioid initiation within each of the three waves from the perspective of people who use illicit opioids, with a focus on emerging pathways into fentanyl use.

Attitudes and experiences with fentanyl contamination of methamphetamine: exploring self-reports and urine toxicology among persons who use methamphetamine and other drugs.

Background: There are growing concerns about illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) contamination of methamphetamine. This study aims to characterize the lay views and experiences with IMF-contaminated methamphetamine (IMF/meth) and identify participants with unknown IMF exposures through urine toxicology analysis.

Methods: Between December-2019 and November-2021, structured interviews were conducted with 91 individuals who reported past 30-day use of methamphetamine and resided in Dayton, Ohio, USA.

Trajectories of non-prescribed buprenorphine and other opioid use: A multi-trajectory latent class growth analysis.

Introduction: With the increasing use of non-prescribed buprenorphine (NPB), we need more data to identify the longitudinal patterns of NPB use. The goal of this natural history study is to characterize heterogeneity in trajectories of NPB, other opioid use, and participation in medication for opioid disorder (MOUD) treatment among a community-recruited sample of individuals with current opioid use disorder (OUD).

Methods: The study recruited a community-based sample of 357 individuals with OUD who used NPB in the past 6 months in Ohio, United States, for baseline and follow-up assessments (every 6 months for 2 years) of drug use, treatment participation, and other health and psychosocial characteristics.

Pandemic response across Ohio's public universities: Novel approaches, emergent challenges and future opportunities.

We describe and analyze case investigation and contact tracing (CICT) efforts across Ohio's public universities in response to COVID-19 to distill challenges and lessons learned and suggest future opportunities for universities to mobilize in the face of emergent public health crises. Faculty, staff, and graduate students from Ohio's fourteen public universities. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from nine of the 14 universities; representatives from the remaining five universities completed a brief questionnaire.

Exploring the Impact of Experiences with Everyday and Major Discrimination and HIV-Related Stigma on Engagement in HIV Care Among Older African Americans Living with HIV.

Objectives: The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the effect of HIV-related stigma and everyday major experiences of discrimination on medication and clinic visit adherence among older African Americans living with HIV in Ohio.

Methods: We collected data from 53 individuals who were living with HIV in Ohio, ≥ 50 years of age, and who identified as Black or African American. We conducted logistic regression models to examine the impact of HIV-related stigma and experiences of discrimination on medication and visit adherence.

Exploring the Impacts of Alcohol and Other Drug Use on HIV Care Among Older African American Adults in Kentucky: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study.

This grounded theory study examined the use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) on the management of HIV disease among 27 older African Americans (≥50 years). Interview transcripts were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory analytic techniques. Participants reported facing (a) environmental impacts of AOD use and (b) discrimination from the health care system.

Lay knowledge and practices of methamphetamine use to manage opioid-related overdose risks.

Aim: Methamphetamine use has increased among individuals with opioid use disorder. The key aims of this study are to detail and contextualise lay knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours related to methamphetamine use in relation to opioid overdose risks in an area dominated by non-pharmaceutical fentanyl-type drugs (NPF).

Methods: The study recruited 41 individuals in Dayton, Ohio, who reported past 30-day use of methamphetamine and heroin/fentanyl.

Exploring the Interactions between Non-Medical Methamphetamine Use and Prescribed Buprenorphine or Naltrexone in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Retention.

Objectives: Our objectives were to examine the impact of methamphetamine use on opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment retention in patients prescribed either buprenorphine/buprenorphine-naloxone (BUP-NX) or naltrexone/extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX), while also exploring the role of other risk factors that may modify the impact of methamphetamine use.

Methods: We conducted an exploratory retrospective study examining OUD treatment retention in 127 patients in Ohio (USA). Patients were prescribed either BUP-NX or naltrexone/XR-NTX.

Lay Beliefs, Practices, and Experiences of Using Methamphetamine to Self-Treat Symptoms of Opioid Withdrawal.

Background: Across the U.S., methamphetamine use is expanding among people who use illicit opioids (PWUIO).

A Second Chance: Reenactment and Recovery Narratives in a Peruvian Drug Rehabilitation Center.

The following article discusses a collaborative, reenactment film made with the residents of a drug rehabilitation center in Iquitos, Peru. In so doing, it raises questions about narratives of recovery from addiction, and the tensions that emerge between these narratives and the often-ambivalent feelings of the people who tell them. Practices of filmmaking and reenactment generate a collaborative theorization of lived experience-in this case, the multifaceted natures of both addiction and recovery.

Methamphetamine Use and Its Correlates among Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder in a Midwestern U.S. City.

: U.S. is experiencing a surging trend of methamphetamine use among individuals who use opioids.

Unintentional drug overdose: Is more frequent use of non-prescribed buprenorphine associated with lower risk of overdose?

Background: Unintentional drug overdoses have reached epidemic levels in the U.S. This study tests the hypothesis that people who have used non-prescribed buprenorphine more frequently in the past six months were less likely to experience a drug overdose during that same time period.

On my own terms: Motivations for self-treating opioid-use disorder with non-prescribed buprenorphine.

Introduction: The opioid overdose crisis in the United States has prompted an expansion of treatment services, including pharmacotherapy with buprenorphine. However, many people who use illicit opioids (PWUIO) self-treat their opioid-use disorder (OUD) with non-prescribed buprenorphine (NPB) in lieu of attending formal treatment. The present study aims to qualitatively understand motivations of people who are self-treating their OUD with NPB.

Patterns of non-prescribed buprenorphine and other opioid use among individuals with opioid use disorder: A latent class analysis.

Aim: Non-prescribed buprenorphine (NPB) use increased in the US. This study aims to characterize heterogeneity in patterns of NPB and other opioid use among individuals with current opioid use disorder.

Methods: The study recruited 356 participants in Dayton (Montgomery County), Ohio, area in 2017-2018 using targeted and Respondent Driven Sampling.

"Everything is not right anymore": Buprenorphine experiences in an era of illicit fentanyl.

Background: Conducted in the Dayton Metropolitan area of Southwestern Ohio, this qualitative study explores the self-treatment practices of people who use illicit opioids (PWUIO) amidst the new risk environment produced by illicit, non-pharmaceutical fentanyl (NPF). We explore local perceptions of the presence of NPF in the Dayton area, and how this has both positively and negatively impacted practices of non-prescribed buprenorphine use among PWUIO.

Methods: This study analyzes qualitative data from 63 interviews conducted between October 2018 and June 2019.