Patients with a prescription for an opioid use disorder medication may have a tough time getting it filled if their pharmacy is in a community that's racially and economically segregated, according to a new study led by scientists at Oregon State University and Johns Hopkins University. The findings shed additional light on inequities in health care as the U.S.
's overdose crisis continues to accelerate, with fatality rates rising fastest in Black and Hispanic/Latinx communities. "While there have been notable policy changes over the past decade that have improved access to meds used for opioid use disorder and made headway against racial disparities, those efforts haven't taken into consideration the issue of whether patients can actually get their prescription filled," said study co-author Dan Hartung, who has dual appointments with the OSU College of Pharmacy and Oregon Health & Science University. In the past decade, those populations have seen their overdose fatality rates nearly triple, compared to a 58% increase among white individuals.
More than 640,000 Americans died from opioid overdose in the years 1999 to 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2022 alone, greater than 100,000 people lost their lives to overdose and 75% of those fatalities involved an opioid. A key tool for helping with opioid use disorder recovery is the prescription drug buprenorphine, which binds to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord in a way that produce.