Article Excerpt: Researchers from Brown and Rhode Island Hospital are working with Rhode Island community members to understand how apps, monitors and other emerging technologies can help prevent opioid overdose deaths.
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/b47n7373
Article Source: News from Brown
Anderson Goodell EM, Nordeck C, Finan PH, Vandrey R, Dunn KE, & Thrul J. (2021). Feasibility and acceptability of using smartphone-based EMA to assess patterns of prescription opioid and medical cannabis use among individuals with chronic pain. Internet Interventions: the Application of Information Technology in Mental and Behavioural Health, 26, 100460–100460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2021.100460
This paper described the feasibility and acceptability of a smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data collection tool among people who use multiple substances and suffer from chronic pain. Forty-six participants were recruited through targeted Facebook and Instagram advertisements and completed screening via the link in the ads. Eligible participants had an opioid medication prescription, current opioid use, a pain disorder, and a referral for medical cannabis. Participants completed prompted EMA surveys on a mobile app for 30 days. Surveys included questions about opioid medication use, medical cannabis use, and pain symptoms. Participants were prompted to respond to four randomly timed surveys (assessing the past hour) and one daily diary per day. A subsample of 10 participants completed qualitative interviews. On average, participants responded to 70% of past-hour surveys and 92% of daily diaries. During qualitative interviews, participants reported an overall positive experience, but identified some issues related to smartphone notifications, redundant questions, or being prompted to complete assessments when they do not feel well. Findings demonstrate the feasibility and general acceptability of using this methodology for examining patterns of medical cannabis and prescription opioid medication use among individuals with chronic pain. Engagement with the digital tool over the 30-day duration was comparable to previous work. This study has implications for informing larger-scale epidemiology studies, interventions, and assessments on a wider geographic scale.
Meacham MC, Nobles AL, Tompkins DA, Thrul J (2022) “I got a bunch of weed to help me through the withdrawals”: Naturalistic cannabis use reported in online opioid and opioid recovery community discussion forums. PLoS ONE 17(2): e0263583. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263583
This study investigated cannabis-related posts in two online communities on the Reddit platform to compare naturalistic cannabis use by people actively using opioids versus people in recovery from opioid misuse. Researchers extracted all posts mentioning keywords related to cannabis from an opioid use subreddit and opioid recovery subreddit on Reddit from December 2015 to August 2019. Cannabis-related posts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to identify the most frequently used phrases and then compared between the two subreddits. Cannabis-related posts were twice as prevalent in the recovery subreddit (N=908, 5% of posts) than the active opioid use subreddit (N=4224, 2.6% of posts). The most frequent phrases in the recovery subreddit referred to time without opioid use and using cannabis as treatment. The opioid use subreddit most frequently referred to concurrent use of cannabis and opioids. The primary reason for cannabis use among persons in recovery was to manage opioid withdrawal symptoms and among active opioid users to achieve the “high” in conjunction with opioids. This study of naturalistic cannabis use reported on an online community platform provides insight into the motivation behind cannabis use among people who actively or previously used opioids. Findings have implications for cannabis policy and its potential impact on opioid use in the context of unmet treatment needs for opioid use disorder. Future research is needed to understand the role of cannabis for treating opioid withdrawal symptoms.
Riedel L, Uscher-Pines L, Mehrotra A, Busch AB, Barnett ML, Raja P, & Huskamp HA. (2021). Use of telemedicine for opioid use disorder treatment – Perceptions and experiences of opioid use disorder clinicians. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 228, 108999–108999. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108999
Researchers conducted a national online survey to assess clinician use of and perspectives about telemedicine for opioid use disorder (OUD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicians, including psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, primary care providers, and physician assistants, were recruited from WebMD/Medscape’s online panel (N=602). The survey focused on the use of telemedicine to treat OUD in the last month. Questions included clinician training, patient population served, OUD visit delivery, barriers to telemedicine, and opinions on effectiveness of telemedicine. Findings showed that on average 57% of visits were via telemedicine. The majority of clinicians (63%) reported telemedicine was as effective as in-person care. Ninety percent said they were comfortable using video for clinically stable patients and 49% said the same for clinically unstable patients. Seventy percent of clinicians preferred to return to in-person care following the pandemic, but 95% wanted to continue to offer telemedicine in some form. Significantly higher comfort levels were found among clinicians with at least 30% of their patient caseload composed of those with OUD compared to clinicians with fewer patients with OUD. Further, clinicians with at least 60% Medicaid and uninsured patients were significantly more likely to have conducted visits via audio-only methods and also preferred to continue using telemedicine after the pandemic compared to those with fewer Medicaid patients. These findings could inform how telemedicine is used for OUD treatment moving forward; however, there remains uncertainty about the use of audio-only visits and reimbursement levels.
Toegel F, Novak MD, Rodewald AM, Leoutsakos JM, Silverman K & Holtyn AF. (2022). Technology-assisted opioid education for out-of-treatment adults with opioid use disorder. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 36(5), 555–564. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000769
This pre-post study evaluated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a technology-assisted education program for adults at higher risk of opioid overdose. The education program was self-paced and included three courses: 1) introduction to opioids, 2) preventing, detecting, and responding to an opioid overdose, and 3) opioid use disorder medications. Each course presented information and then prompted the user to complete a multiple-choice quiz to assess mastery of course material; incorrect answers produced feedback and participants were required to answer the question again to be able to advance to the next course. Forty adult participants with opioid use disorder who were not currently in treatment and who were living in Baltimore, Maryland were referred from community agencies and enrolled in the study. The education program took on average 91 minutes to complete and most participants completed the program in a single day. The mean score for the baseline test was 85% accuracy, indicating that participants already had prior knowledge of opioids, opioid overdoses, and medications. After completion of the program, participants showed significant improvement in test scores across all three courses (increase of 9.1%, 5.8%, and 10.1% respectively; p<.001); this was independent of education, employment, and poverty status. Participants with less than 12 years of education had significantly lower scores than those with 12 or more years of education. The computerized opioid education program demonstrated preliminary feasibility and efficacy in an uncontrolled trial among at-risk adults. Mobile technology allows for the potential to disseminate widely.
Article Excerpt: Disrupted sleep is a common complaint for people actively trying to quit highly addictive opioids. According to a release from WSU, methadone is effective at reducing cravings and withdrawal, but it is often prescribed once daily and adjusting for the proper dosage can take time. Before a patient and doctor can get the dosage right, treatments can wear off during the night, returning withdrawal symptoms and pain – which increases the risk of resuming drug use and accidental overdose. The study, published in the journal Pain Management Nursing, found home sensors matched other sleep monitoring methods 89% of the time.
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/4x79bx6w
Article Source: Fox 28
Article Excerpt: Accessing overdose data is particularly tricky in Texas, although a dearth of timely and complete numbers is also a problem in many other states. Often, the data isn’t updated in real time, nor does it include non-fatal overdoses. There may also be inconsistencies in how the deaths are reported. To change that, researchers across the United States have been setting up new digital platforms with reports from people who use drugs, medical examiners, and others. While these platforms may lack the rigor of official government numbers, the academics say the new data could tell Project Vida and programs like it where to focus efforts — and, they argue, could save lives.
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/mwtyjdj9
Article Source: GCN
Article Excerpt: Human behavior is difficult to manage: Why do people do the things they do, even when some habits are bad for them? And how can they change these behaviors? Bethany Raiff, Ph.D., a professor of psychology in the College of Science & Mathematics, has designed incentive-based approaches, often using technology, to help people quit smoking, attend treatment for opioid use disorder, and engage in physical activity. “We make a lot of decisions that are not always in our best interest,” Raiff said. “I am trying to understand how to shift people’s decision-making toward healthier behavior.”
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/mwdvd6uc
Article Source: Rowan University News
Article Excerpt: For the past five years, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been working together on an interactive resource for states and health systems called the Integration Framework. The tool is meant to give guidance to help improve integration of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) within clinicians’ workflows. It includes best practices for implementing advanced clinical decision support systems to help flag potential opioid abuse, and it outlines steps to help advance and scale PDMP integration with IT systems, such as electronic health records, health information exchanges and pharmacy systems.
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2w5z9smr
Article Source: Health IT News