Freisthler, Bridget and Chahine, Rouba A and Villani, Jennifer and Chandler, Redonna and Feaster, Daniel J and Slavova, Svetla and Defiore-Hyrmer, Jolene and Walley, Alexander Y and Kosakowski, Sarah and Aldridge, Arnie and Barbosa, Carolina and Bhatta, Sabana and Brancato, Candace and Bridden, Carly and Christopher, Mia and Clarke, Tom and David, James and D'Costa, Lauren and Ewing, Irene and Fernandez, Soledad and Gibson, Erin and Gilbert, Louisa and Hall, Megan E and Hargrove, Sarah and Hunt, Timothy and Kinnard, Elizabeth N and Larochelle, Lauren and Macoubray, Aaron and Nigam, Shawn and Nunes, Edward V and Oser, Carrie B and Pagnano, Sharon and Rock, Peter and Salsberry, Pamela and Shadwick, Aimee and Stopka, Thomas J and Tan, Sylvia and Taylor, Jessica L and Westgate, Philip M and Wu, Elwin and Zarkin, Gary A and Walsh, Sharon L and El-Bassel, Nabila and Winhusen, T John and Samet, Jeffrey H and Oga, Emmanuel A (2024) Communities that HEAL intervention and mortality including polysubstance overdose deaths: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Network Open, 7, (10), e2440006. 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.40006.
External website: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/f...
Importance: The HEALing Communities Study (HCS) evaluated the effectiveness of the Communities That HEAL (CTH) intervention in preventing fatal overdoses amidst the US opioid epidemic.
Question: Did a data-driven, community coalition–engaged intervention effectively reduce opioid overdose deaths, total drug overdose deaths, and specific opioid-involved polysubstance overdose deaths?
Findings: In this parallel-group cluster-randomized clinical trial of 67 communities, intervention communities had a nonsignificant 8% lower overdose death rate than control communities and a statistically significant 37% fewer deaths due to an opioid combined with a psychostimulant other than cocaine.
Meaning: These results suggest that community-focused, data-driven interventions that scale up evidence-based practices with a communications campaign may collectively contribute to successes in addressing the evolving nature of some opioid-involved polysubstance overdose deaths.
B Substances > Opioids (opiates)
G Health and disease > Substance use disorder (addiction) > Multiple substance use (Poly-drug /Poly-substance)
G Health and disease > Substance use disorder (addiction) > Drug use disorder > Drug intoxication > Poisoning (overdose)
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Harm reduction > Substance use harm reduction
L Social psychology and related concepts > Participation / involvement / engagement / co-production
P Demography, epidemiology, and history > Population dynamics > Substance related mortality / death
VA Geographic area > United States
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