TORONTO A Yale study that found Canadian clinics were faster than the U.S. to provide opioid treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the ethical tightrope researchers must walk when studying addiction while using deception in their research gathering. The study, entitled “Methadone Access for Opioid Use Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic Within the United States and Canada,” was published July 23 in the JAMA Open Network and compared how timely access to methadone was for opioid users during the pandemic between the two countries. Methadone has been used to prevent overdose deaths for decades, but the treatment remains highly regulated and difficult to access within the United States. In response to the rise in overdose deaths, however, Canada and its provinces relaxed regulations on methadone treatment, the study states.
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IMAGE: COVID-19 has been associated with increases in opioid overdose deaths, which may be in part because the pandemic limited access to buprenorphine, a treatment used for opioid dependency, according to. view more
Credit: Egan Jimenez, Princeton University
COVID-19 has been associated with increases in opioid overdose deaths, which may be in part because the pandemic limited access to buprenorphine, a treatment used for opioid dependency, according to a new study led by Princeton University researchers.
The researchers found that Americans who were already taking opioids did not experience disruptions in their supply. Patients who were not previously taking opioids for pain management were less likely to receive a new prescription in the first months of the pandemic, but prescriptions for new patients soon bounced back to previous levels.
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NEW YORK, March 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ The coronavirus pandemic has led to several temporary regulatory relaxations and policy innovations in treatment for opioid use disorder aimed at making it easier for those seeking care to access treatment without risking in-person interactions. The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) today announced it is providing grants totaling $1.3 million to six organizations to assess the
impact of these temporary measures and inform future policies to improve access and promote equity for the treatment of opioid use disorder. Temporary policy changes related to opioid use disorder treatment include the use of telehealth, allowing for take-home methadone doses, and alterations in toxicology screening, said Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, President of FORE. We have a short window of time to determine which policy changes are working to improve access, and how these policies improve or lessen equitab