WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The National Institutes of Health's study to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths in participating communities has failed to achieve the goal during the evaluation period, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Helping to End Addiction Long-Term or HEALing Communities Study focused on 67 communities across Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, and Ohio. It awarded $344 million to these communities by using funds collected by Congress for substance abuse research the previous year.
'The implementation of evidence-based interventions is critical to addressing the evolving overdose crisis,' said Miriam E. Delphin-Rittmon, HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use. 'This study recognizes there is no quick fix to reduce opioid overdose deaths. Saving lives requires ongoing commitment to evidence-based strategies. The HEALing Communities Study facilitated the implementation of 615 evidence-based practice strategies, with the potential to yield lifesaving results in coming years.'
Researchers helped the participating communities by working with local health care providers and prisons, spreading awareness about opioid overdoses, increasing distribution of medications that reverse or reduce opioid overdoses including naloxone, methadone and buprenorphine.
However, the study was interrupted by certain factors such as shutdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, less time to implement evidence-based practices, and increased supply of fentanyl.
'We started this study in January of 2020, and guess what happened in March of 2020?' Redonna Chandler, the Director of the project, said. 'And while our communities continued working in the background, we weren't able to get into hospitals. We weren't able to get into jails. We weren't able to get into a lot of the places and spaces where we wanted to implement our evidence-based practices.'
Interestingly, researchers found during the comparison period that the communities which followed the recommended practices experienced 47.2 opioid-related overdose deaths per 100,000 people, whereas the communities which didn't follow experienced 51.7 deaths.
'Even in the face of a global pandemic and worsening overdose crisis, the HEALing Communities Study was able to support the implementation of hundreds of strategies that we know save lives,' said Chandler. 'This is an incredible feat for implementation science, and shows that when we provide communities with an infrastructure to make data-driven decisions, they are able to effectively implement evidence-based practices based on their unique needs.'
Researchers are hopeful that the data from this study will be critical in planning future actions, and developing new tools and approaches for addressing the overdose crisis.
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