To deal with the overdose crisis in the US, the National Institutes of Health has established a research network that may test harm reduction strategies in several community settings to tell efforts to assist save lives. The harm reduction research network’s efforts construct on existing harm reduction research, and represent the biggest pool of funding from NIH so far to check harm reduction strategies to handle overdose deaths.

Greater than 107,000 people in the US died from a drug overdose in 2021, in line with provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These deaths are largely driven by the proliferation of low-cost, potent synthetic drugs like fentanyl contaminating the drug supply, including in heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and counterfeit pills.

Harm reduction is an evidence-based, often life-saving approach that directly engages individuals who use drugs to stop overdose, disease transmission and other harms. Researchers will test strategies to attach enrolled participants who use drugs with services and coverings and measure the effectiveness of those interventions in reducing overdose deaths and other outcomes.

Getting people into treatment for substance use disorders is critical, but first, people must survive to have that alternative. Harm reduction services acknowledge this reality by aiming to satisfy people where they’re to enhance health, prevent overdoses, save lives and supply treatment options to individuals. Research to higher understand how different harm reduction models may fit in communities across the country is subsequently crucial to handle the overdose crisis strategically and effectively.”

Nora D. Volkow, M.D., National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director

Funded by the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, through NIDA, the awards are expected to total roughly $36 million over five years, pending the supply of funds. Studies will enroll participants to analyze a variety of harm reduction approaches, resembling distributing naloxone, a lifesaving medication to reverse overdose, and fentanyl test strips, which individuals can use to find out if drugs are contaminated with fentanyl.

The research network will even examine the efficacy of moving harm reduction services and tools into communities via mobile vans, peer support specialists, internet- and smartphone-based tools and other varieties of outreach. By offering these services, harm reduction could also be a primary step interaction that also helps people access treatment for addiction and other healthcare.

Novel types of harm reduction services may prove helpful in rural areas of the country, where people may have to travel long distances to receive care and services. Based on 2020 CDC data, rural counties experienced 26.2 overdose deaths per 100,000 people, which was only barely lower than the rates in urban counties (28.6 deaths per 100,000 people); overdose deaths involving psychostimulants were higher in rural counties than in urban counties from 2012 through 2020. Moreover, several projects shall be aimed toward populations disproportionally affected by the negative impacts of drug use, including Black and Latino/Latina communities, and girls.

“The opioid and overdose crisis continues to evolve in dangerous and unpredictable ways, but scientific solutions that embrace progressive research and community connections offer the very best hope for saving lives across America,” said NIH HEAL Initiative Director Rebecca G. Baker, Ph.D.

The brand new harm reduction research network will include nine research projects and one coordinating center. Grantees will investigate harm reduction strategies for his or her effectiveness in stopping drug overdoses and other hostile outcomes, sustainability and level of individual and community engagement. All projects could have a community advisory board and/or individuals with lived experience could have paid positions to support the research. Leading institutions and their projects include:

• Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore: Evaluating the impact of mobile van-delivered harm reduction services on overdoses amongst women in Baltimore who use drugs. Mobile vans will offer participants supplies like naloxone, fentanyl test strips and necessities resembling food and clothing, temporary trauma-informed counseling, and referrals to drug treatment, medical care and social services.
• Recent York University School of Medicine, Recent York City: Investigating the results of a harm reduction intervention delivered via mobile van to Black and Latino/Latina participants who use drugs in Recent Haven, Connecticut, and the borough of the Bronx, Recent York. A community-based care coordinator will assess the unique needs of every participant (resembling housing, food assistance, and mental health treatment) after which link them to appropriate services.
• Oregon Health and Science University, Portland: Evaluating two interventions – contingency management, an evidence-based behavioral intervention for the treatment of quite a lot of substance use disorders, and the identification of non-public harm reduction goals with the support of a peer with lived experience – at community-based organizations in rural Oregon to extend the supply and effectiveness of harm reduction services for individuals who use methamphetamine.
• Research Triangle Institute, North Carolina: Assessing the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of harm reduction services in San Francisco, with the goal of helping public health agencies, community-based organizations, and policy makers higher understand methods to tackle health-related harm amongst individuals who use drugs.
• Research Triangle Institute, North Carolina: Establishing a harm reduction research network coordination center that may provide support to the nine research studies within the harm reduction research network.
• University of Chicago: Measuring using harm reduction services and investigating methods to successfully implement distant harm reduction strategies in rural Illinois communities. For example, examining “secondary distribution” approaches, by which individuals who obtain harm reduction supplies (e.g., naloxone or fentanyl test strips) from harm reduction service providers share them with other individuals who use drugs who’re currently without access to those providers.
• University of Nevada-Reno: Testing ways to discover and support “overdose responders” (individuals who use drugs who reply to overdoses of their peers), to higher understand barriers to naloxone use and increase long-term use of naloxone amongst individuals who use drugs.
• University of Pittsburgh: Developing and testing an intervention aimed toward changing behaviors and reducing risks amongst Black individuals who use drugs who visit the emergency department in Pittsburgh. The intervention, which shall be delivered to participants by peers with lived experience of drug use, bundles evidence-based harm reduction strategies including take home naloxone and fentanyl test strips.
• University of Wisconsin-Madison: Developing and testing an intervention consisting of as much as 4 internet- and smartphone-based tools designed to enhance access to harm reduction services for hardly reached people, enrolling participants in each urban and rural regions of Wisconsin.
• Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Recent York City: Determining where and methods to best provide mail-delivered harm reduction supplies by investigating the barriers to mail-delivery of harm reduction supplies, predictors of use and long-term engagement with mail-delivered harm reduction services and preferences of study participants who use them.

NIH shouldn’t be providing funds for the acquisition of pipes, syringes or needles.

The brand new harm reduction research network joins other ongoing harm reduction research funded by NIDA and the NIH HEAL Initiative, which address drug overdoses, drug use, transmission of HIV and hepatitis C, and intersectional stigma. NIDA and the NIH HEAL Initiative also fund substantial research on drug use and addiction prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery support.

Source:

NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse