Context: Rhode Island has been significantly impacted by the opioid epidemic, ranking 11th in unintentional drug overdose rates in the United States in 2017. Illicit fentanyl was involved in the majority of these deaths.
Program: To enhance surveillance of this epidemic, the RI Department of Health piloted in-depth, multidisciplinary, and multiagency team reviews of drug overdose deaths. The goals were to identify gaps in policies and programming and develop recommendations to prevent future deaths. Time-sensitive minigrants were offered to nonprofit organizations as a novel way to further the recommendations put forth from these reviews.
Implementation: Legal agreements between select state agencies and institutions enabled broad team representation and the sharing of information during each meeting. Reviews, revolving around a common theme, were conducted for up to 10 deaths each quarter. Recommendations for prevention were generated by the team and summarized in a report to the Governor's Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force and the public within 1 month of each meeting. Announcements of minigrant opportunities and funding to advance the community-specific recommendations were paired with each meeting.
Evaluation: From November 2016 through May 2018, the pilot team convened 7 times, generated 78 recommendations, and distributed 31 minigrants. Early process evaluations of these grants have shown positive impact within local environments. Following the pilot phase, state legislation for these reviews was passed in June 2018.
Discussion: The RI Department of Health was able to successfully pilot a multidisciplinary review process for overdose deaths and has recently institutionalized this process through legislation. The successful implementation of many of the team's community-oriented recommendations, supported through a minigrant process, highlights the impact that small financial investments can have to address the opioid epidemic and may be a model for other jurisdictions seeking to advance recommendations from these types of reviews.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000001081 | DOI Listing |
HCA Healthc J Med
December 2024
HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital, Orange Park, FL.
Introduction: As illicit drug manufacturers find new ways to market their products and increase their profit margins, multiple contaminants have found their way into the illicit drug supply. The newest addition, xylazine, also known as "tranq," has spread through the city of Philadelphia and has recently been gaining ground across the United States, including in the state of Florida.
Case Presentation: This case describes a 37-year-old male with a significant past psychiatric history of severe polysubstance intravenous (IV) use, including fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Rev Med Interne
January 2025
Service de médecine interne, hôpital Louis-Mourier, Colombes, France.
Introduction: Metformin is a first line treatment for type II diabetes. Cases of metformin-associated lactic acidosis are regularly reported. A direct causal link between metformin overdose and lactic acidosis is not clearly established.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrug Alcohol Depend
January 2025
Neuropsychoimaging of Addictions and Related Conditions (NARC), Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.
Question: The opioid epidemic causes massive morbidity, and males have substantially greater overdose mortality rates than females. It is unclear whether there are sex-related disparities at different stages in the trajectory of opioid use disorders (OUD), from large samples in the community.
Goal: To determine sex disparities in non-medical opioid use (NMOU) at the end of treatment with medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), using national data.
Psychol Addict Behav
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington.
Objective: Both opioid misuse and overdose mortality have disproportionately impacted the American Indian population. Although medications for opioid use disorder, such as buprenorphine (BUP-NX), are highly effective in reducing overdose mortality, questions have been raised about the cultural acceptability of Western medical approaches in this population. Understanding patients' desired recovery pathways can lead to more culturally appropriate, patient-centered, and effective approaches to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Mater Chem B
January 2025
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
Despite the various benefits of chlorpromazine, its misuse and overdose may lead to severe side effects, therefore, creating a user-friendly point-of-care device for monitoring the levels of chlorpromazine drug to manage the potential side effects and ensure the effective and safe use of the medication is highly desired. In this report, we have demonstrated a simple and scalable manufacturing process for the development of a 3D-printed conducting microneedle array-based electrochemical point-of-care device for the minimally invasive sensing of chlorpromazine. We used an inkjet printer to print the carbon and silver ink onto a customized 3D-printed ultrasharp microneedle array for the preparation of counter, working, and reference electrodes.
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