TUESDAY, Oct. 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Expanded access to addiction treatment and the overdose-reversal med naloxone likely prompted a 37% reduction in OD deaths linked to opioids taken with meth or other stimulant drugs, a new study suggests. OD death rates were 8.
9 deaths per 100,000 in communities with expanded access to treatment and naloxone, compared to 14.1 deaths per 100,000 in communities that didn’t have this increased access, researchers report. “It was nice to see that we were able to achieve reductions in overdose deaths involving this combination of opioids, primarily fentanyl and psychostimulants, not including cocaine, because that’s the most recent wave in the epidemic that we’re seeing,” said lead researcher Bridget Freisthler , a professor at Ohio State University.
For the study, researchers analyzed the effects of the HEALing Communities Study, a National Institutes of Health effort to address opioid-related OD deaths. Based on the needs of their specific area, local agencies selected from three “menus” of evidence-based practices focused on overdose education, naloxone distribution, medication to treat opioid addiction and safer opioid prescribing. Initially, this program did not result in a statistically significant reduction in opioid OD deaths.
Communities with the program had an 8% lower rate of all drug ODs compared to those that didn’t participate. But researchers noted that more than 40% of OD deaths in the study involved the co.