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Opioids

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Report
America's Opioid Ecosystem
Patterns and consequences of opioid use are changing dramatically. Researchers provide a nuanced assessment of America's opioid ecosystem, highlighting how leveraging system interactions can reduce addiction, overdose, suffering, and other harms.
Mar 16, 2023
Commentary
Strategies to Prevent Clinically Unnecessary Opioid Use
Guidance on how to direct opioid-related settlement funds has focused on reducing deaths and improving treatment for substance use disorders. What's also needed are strategies to reduce opioid initiation, particularly through effective pain management with nonopioid alternatives.
Aug 29, 2023

Explore Opioids

Journal Article
Racial/ethnic Differences in Prescription Opioid Misuse and Heroin Use Among a National Sample, 1999–2018
We compared relative prevalences across 6 racial/ethnic groups for prescription opioid misuse analyses and 4 racial/ethnic groups for heroin analyses.
Feb 19, 2021
Multimedia
Opioid Litigation: What's New, and What Does It Mean for Future Litigation?
More than 2,000 plaintiffs have joined the largest civil trial in U.S. history: National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL 2804). In this virtual symposium, experts discuss the opioid litigation and its effects on the future of mass litigation.
Feb 9, 2021
Multimedia
RAND Remote: High Stakes, Fostering Innovation to Stem the Tide of America's Drug Problems
In this RAND Remote presentation, Beau Kilmer discusses how RAND is identifying and evaluating innovative approaches to tackle some of America's most pressing drug problems and help strengthen and safeguard communities.
Jan 28, 2021
Journal Article
Illicit Synthetic Opioid Consumption in Asia and the Pacific: Assessing the Risks of a Potential Outbreak
While many illegally manufactured potent synthetic opioids (IMPSO) are produced in Asia, there is little evidence they have entered markets there. We consider the susceptibility to IMPSO's encroachment in markets in the Asia-Pacific region.
Jan 26, 2021
Journal Article
Methodological Challenges and Proposed Solutions for Evaluating Opioid Policy Effectiveness
In this paper, we provide an overview of methodological challenges facing opioid policy researchers when conducting opioid policy evaluation studies using observational data, as well as some potential solutions to those challenges.
Jan 20, 2021
Journal Article
Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder During COVID-19: Experiences of Clinicians Transitioning to Telemedicine
In the context of the pandemic, buprenorphine prescribers quickly transitioned to providing telemedicine visits in high volume; nonetheless, there are still many unknowns, including the quality and safety of widespread use of telemedicine for OUD treatment.
Jan 6, 2021
Journal Article
Assessment of Filled Buprenorphine Prescriptions for Opioid Use Disorder During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic
Retail buprenorphine sales for opioid addiction plateau during COVID-19 pandemic amidst sharp declines in total prescription sales.
Dec 30, 2020
Journal Article
Telehealth Capability in the U.S. at the Onset of COVID-19
Relatively few substance use treatment facilities in the United States offered telehealth services at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nov 3, 2020
Journal Article
Police Officers, Stigma, and the Opioid Epidemic
The goal of this exploratory project is to help fill gaps in the literature by empirically measuring levels of explicit provider-based stigma toward persons who use opioids.
Oct 28, 2020
Blog
Truth Decay, Opioid Settlement Funds, Veterans Health Care: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on fighting back against Truth Decay, how to spend opioid settlement funds, China's lack of friends, and more.
Oct 23, 2020
Report
Pitfalls and Potholes: Data Issues to Consider When Analyzing State Opioid Policies, September 14, 2020
This webinar focused on data dimensions that researchers should keep in mind when conducting analyses of state opioid policies and when seeking to draw conclusions from other studies.
Oct 21, 2020
Journal Article
A Mixed-Method Comparison of Physician-Reported Beliefs About and Barriers to Treatment with Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
We conducted a mixed-methods study that involved focus group interviews and an online survey disseminated to a random group of licensed U.S. physicians, which oversampled physicians with a preexisting waiver to prescribe buprenorphine.
Oct 13, 2020
Journal Article
Study Design to Evaluate a Group-based Therapy for Support Persons of Adults on Buprenorphine/Naloxone
This study will evaluate whether the adapted intervention, also known as integrating support persons into recovery, is effective in increasing patient retention on buprenorphine when compared to usual care.
Sep 18, 2020
Journal Article
Health Center Implementation of Telemedicine for Opioid Use Disorders: A Qualitative Assessment of Adopters and Nonadopters
Although use of telemedicine for the treatment of opioid use disorders is growing, there is limited research on how it is actually being deployed in treatment. We explored how health centers across the U.S. are using it.
Sep 18, 2020
Journal Article
The Dawn of a New Synthetic Opioid Era: The Need for Innovative Interventions
This paper stems from recent research into understanding the past, present and possible futures of synthetic opioids in North America and beyond.
Sep 17, 2020
Journal Article
Association of Pregnancy and Insurance Status With Treatment Access for Opioid Use Disorder
In this cross-sectional study with random assignment of clinicians and simulated-patient callers, many women, especially pregnant women, faced barriers to accessing treatment. Given the high out-of-pocket costs and lack of acceptance of insurance among many clinicians, access to affordable opioid use disorder treatment is a significant concern.
Sep 3, 2020
Journal Article
Ethics Consultations Related to Opioid Use Disorder
The aim of this study was to characterize ethics consult questions among inpatients with opioid use disorder at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Sep 3, 2020
Journal Article
Monthly Patient Volumes of Buprenorphine-Waivered Clinicians in the US
This cross-sectional study examines the number of patients prescribed buprenorphine by waivered-clinicians. Evidence shows waivered-clinicians who are able to prescribe buprenorphine treat fewer patients than their limit allows. With so much unmet demand for OUD treatment, this suggests the need for ongoing efforts to address treatment barriers.
Aug 27, 2020
Journal Article
Opioid Prescribing History Prior to Heroin Overdose Among Commercially Insured Adults
We used insurance claims to examine the prevalence and prescribing patterns of prescription opioids in a national cohort of individuals experiencing a treated heroin-related overdose between 2010 and 2017.
Jul 31, 2020
Journal Article
Prevalence and Predictors of Driving After Prescription Opioid Use in an Adult ED Sample
Prescription opioid use and driving is a public health concern given the risks associated with drugged driving. We examined the prevalence and correlates of driving after taking prescription opioids among adults seeking emergency department treatment.
Jul 31, 2020

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Beth Ann Griffin

Senior Statistician

Beth Ann Griffin is a senior statistician at the RAND Corporation and codirector the NIDA-funded RAND/USC Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center (OPTIC) whose goal is to foster innovative research, tools, and methods for tackling the opioid epidemic. Her statistical research has focused on…
Yaou Flora Sheng

Statistical Analyst

Flora (Yaou) Sheng is a statistical analyst at the RAND Corporation. She conducts research on health and public policy and, working with multidisciplinary teams, she develops methods combining theories and empirical strategies developed in epidemiology, economics, and statistics so as to provide…

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