Publications by authors named "Zoe Weinstein"

Article Synopsis
  • The study is focused on the increasing issue of hospitalizations related to opioid use disorder (OUD), comparing standard addiction consultation services to a specific treatment involving a long-lasting buprenorphine injection to improve post-hospital care engagement.
  • Patients in six U.S. hospitals who were not on medication for OUD before admission will be randomly assigned either to continue usual care or receive a single dose of a 28-day extended-release buprenorphine upon discharge.
  • Outcomes will be assessed at multiple follow-up points, with the primary goal of seeing if the XR-BUP group shows higher engagement in ongoing treatment 34 days after leaving the hospital, while also monitoring for safety and various secondary effects.
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Background: Individuals with opioid use disorder have high rates of hospital admissions, which represent a critical opportunity to engage patients and initiate medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). However, few patients receive MOUD and, even if MOUD is initiated in the hospital, patients may encounter barriers to continuing MOUD in the community.

Objective: Describe hospital providers' experiences and perspectives to inform initiatives and policies that support hospital-based MOUD initiation and continuation in community treatment programs.

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Background: Implementation of office-based addiction treatment (OBAT) by nurse care managers increases overall use of OUD medication, but it is unknown whether it increases treatment duration among treated patients.

Methods: The Primary Care Opioid Use Disorders Treatment (PROUD) trial was a pragmatic, cluster-randomized trial testing whether implementation of OBAT increased OUD treatment in 12 primary care clinics in 6 systems. One of 2 clinics per system was randomized to implement OBAT (intervention), the other, usual care (UC).

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Objectives: The aim of the study was to examine the association between Black, White, and Hispanic or Latino race and ethnicity and referral rejection from private postacute care facilities among hospitalized individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we linked electronic postacute care referrals from Boston Medical Center in 2018 to electronic medical record data, which we used to ascertain OUD status and race and ethnicity. Using multivariable logistic regression, we examined the association between Black, White, and Hispanic or Latino race and ethnicity and referral rejection, adjusting for individual-level characteristics including medication for opioid use disorder treatment type and for facility-level factors using facility random effects.

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Background: Addiction medicine providers have a key role in HIV prevention amidst rising HIV incidence in persons who inject drugs (PWID). Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) are vastly underutilized in this population. Inpatient hospitalization represents a potential touchpoint for initiation of HIV prophylaxis, though little research explores the role of addiction providers.

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Introduction: Methadone and buprenorphine are effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), yet they are vastly under-utilized across US hospitals. To inform a national trial assessing the effectiveness of implementation strategies to increase adoption of an inpatient hospital-based opioid treatment (HBOT) model (NCT04921787), we explored barriers and facilitators to expanding medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) within community hospitals across the United States.

Methods: From November 2021 to March 2022, we used purposeful and snowball sampling to identify and interview participants involved in inpatient care of patients with OUD from twelve community hospitals.

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Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased substance-related morbidity and mortality and transformed care for opioid use disorder (OUD). We assessed the perceived impacts of the pandemic on substance use and related consequences among patients in office-based addiction treatment (OBAT).

Methods: We recruited patients with OUD on buprenorphine from July 2021 to July 2022, with data collection at baseline and 6 months.

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Importance: Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are highly effective, but only 22% of individuals in the US with opioid use disorder receive them. Hospitalization potentially provides an opportunity to initiate MOUD and link patients to ongoing treatment.

Objective: To study the effectiveness of interprofessional hospital addiction consultation services in increasing MOUD treatment initiation and engagement.

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Article Synopsis
  • Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) often utilize emergency services and hospitals more, and the PROUD trial aimed to see if office-based addiction treatment (OBAT) could help reduce this.
  • The trial involved 12 clinics and focused on OUD patients, comparing outcomes between those receiving OBAT and usual care over two years after treatment began.
  • Results showed that, despite increased treatment days for intervention patients, there was no significant difference in emergency or hospital utilization between the OBAT and usual care groups for both pre- and post-randomization patients.
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Background: Deaths from opioid overdose have increased dramatically in the past decade, representing an epidemic in the United States. For individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD), agonist medications such as methadone and buprenorphine reduce opioid-related morbidity and mortality. Historically, the provision of buprenorphine treatment in office-based settings has relied on frequent in-person contact, likely influencing patients' access to and retention in care.

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People with substance use disorders (SUDs) are increasingly admitted to general hospitals; however, many hospital systems lack both formal structures and skilled staff to provide high-quality care for inpatients with SUDs. Inpatient addiction consult services (ACSs), which are increasingly being implemented around the country, are an evidence-based strategy to add focused care for people with SUDs into the general medical setting. In 2018, New York City Health + Hospitals (H + H) launched an ACS program called Consult for Addiction Care and Treatment in Hospitals in six hospitals, supported by a team of addiction consult experts to deliver teaching and technical assistance (TTA) for the Consult for Addiction Care and Treatment in Hospitals ACSs.

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Importance: Few primary care (PC) practices treat patients with medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) despite availability of effective treatments.

Objective: To assess whether implementation of the Massachusetts model of nurse care management for OUD in PC increases OUD treatment with buprenorphine or extended-release injectable naltrexone and secondarily decreases acute care utilization.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The Primary Care Opioid Use Disorders Treatment (PROUD) trial was a mixed-methods, implementation-effectiveness cluster randomized clinical trial conducted in 6 diverse health systems across 5 US states (New York, Florida, Michigan, Texas, and Washington).

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In this study, we describe patients from a tertiary care safety-net hospital endocarditis registry with tricuspid valve infective endocarditis (TVIE), and concomitant acute or subacute ischemic stroke predominantly associated with injection drug use (IDU). We retrospectively obtained data pertinent to neurologic examinations, history of injection drug use (IDU), blood cultures, transthoracic/transesophageal echocardiography (TTE/TEE), neuroimaging, and Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores at discharge. Only those patients with bacteremia, tricuspid valve vegetations, and neuroimaging consistent with acute to subacute ischemic infarction and microhemorrhages in two cases were included in this series.

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Background: Injection drug use-related endocarditis is increasingly common among hospitalized patients in the United States, and associated morbidity and mortality are rising.

Case Presentation: Here we present the case of a 34-year-old woman with severe opioid use disorder and multiple episodes of infective endocarditis requiring prosthetic tricuspid valve replacement, who developed worsening dyspnea on exertion. Her echocardiogram demonstrated severe tricuspid regurgitation with a flail prosthetic valve leaflet, without concurrent endocarditis, necessitating a repeat valve replacement.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic drove significant disruptions in access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and harm reduction services. Healthcare delivery via telemedicine has increasingly become the norm, rendering access to a phone essential for engagement in care.

Methods: Adult patients with SUD who lacked phones ( = 181) received a free, pre-paid phone during encounters with inpatient and outpatient SUD programs.

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Background: Women who use drugs face sexism and intersectional stigma that influence their drug use experiences and treatment needs. There is a need to build the capacity of addiction medicine specialists who can deliver gender-responsive services and advance research and policy in women-focused addiction care. We describe the development of a Women's Health track within an addiction medicine fellowship program and reflect on successes, challenges, and future directions.

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Background: Emerging evidence suggests low-dose buprenorphine (LDB) induction can expand opportunities for buprenorphine induction in patients who are taking taking methadone, short-acting opioid agonists, or who have anxiety about opioid withdrawal.

Study Question: How is a rapid LDB protocol using transdermal buprenorphine tolerated in the hospital?

Study Design: A prospective study of 20 patient encounters (n = 20 patients) with traditional buprenorphine induction before implementation of study protocol (control group) and 37 patient encounters (n = 34 patients) with LDB induction protocol (pilot group). Summary statistics were used to describe demographics, clinical opioid withdrawal scale and pain scores within 24 hours preprotocol and within 24 hours postprotocol initiation, hospital length of stay after protocol initiation, receipt of a buprenorphine prescription at discharge, and prescription activity at 30 days.

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Background: Hospitalizations related to the consequences of opioid use are rising. National guidelines directing in-hospital opioid use disorder (OUD) management do not exist. OUD treatment guidelines intended for other treatment settings could inform in-hospital OUD management.

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Hospital-based clinicians frequently care for patients with opioid withdrawal or opioid use disorder (OUD) and are well-positioned to identify and initiate treatment for these patients. With rising numbers of hospitalizations related to opioid use and opioid-related overdose, the Society of Hospital Medicine convened a working group to develop a Consensus Statement on the management of OUD and associated conditions among hospitalized adults. The guidance statement is intended for clinicians practicing medicine in the inpatient setting (e.

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Since 2013, fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, which are significantly more potent than heroin, have been increasingly prevalent in the opioid drug supply. A need exists to adapt methadone dosing from opioid treatment programs (OTPs) in this era. Current methadone protocols at many clinics in the United States are based on expert consensus documents that were created prior to the introduction of fentanyl into the drug supply and are relatively conservative.

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Background: Methadone for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment is restricted to licensed opioid treatment programs (OTPs) with substantial barriers to entry. Underutilized regulations allow non-OTP providers to administer methadone for opioid withdrawal for up to 72 h while arranging ongoing care. Our low-barrier bridge clinic implemented a new pathway to treat opioid withdrawal and facilitate OTP linkage utilizing the "72-hour rule.

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Background: Pulmonary valve infective endocarditis (PVIE) represents a rare subset of right-sided IE. This study aimed to evaluate the population-level surgical outcomes of PVIE in the United States.

Methods: We performed a retrospective observational study using the 2002-2017 National Inpatient Sample database.

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Introduction: Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) who smoke cigarettes have high tobacco-related comorbidities, lack of access to tobacco treatment, lack of inclusion in smoking cessation trials, and remain understudied in the mobile health field. The purpose of this study was to understand patients' with OUD perceptions of 1) text message programs to promote smoking cessation, 2) content and features to include in such a program, and 3) how message content should be framed.

Methods: From December 2018 to February 2019, we recruited 20 hospitalized individuals with a concurrent diagnosis of OUD and tobacco dependence at Boston Medical Center (BMC), the largest safety-net hospital in New England.

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Referrals of hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) to postacute medical care facilities are commonly rejected. We linked all electronic referrals from a Boston safety-net hospital in 2018 to clinical data and used multivariable logistic regression to examine the association between OUD diagnosis and rejection from postacute medical care. Hospitalized patients with OUD were referred to more facilities than patients without OUD (8.

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Background: The syndemic of injection drug use and serious injection-related infections is leading to increasing mortality in the USA. Although outpatient treatment with medications for opioid use disorder reduces overdose risk and recurrent infections, hospitalisation remains common. We evaluated the clinical impact, costs, and cost-effectiveness of hospital-based strategies to address the US opioid epidemic.

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