Faculty Bibliography

The current study aimed to understand motivations of high-risk polysubstance use. Semistructured interviews were conducted in New York City with 20 individuals with frequent recent polysubstance use. Two analysts coded the interviews (κ = 93.97). Five themes related to motivation for polysubstance use were found: (1) balance, prolong, or enhance effects, (2) self-medicate physical ailments, (3) cope with emotional distress, (4) drug-induced cravings, and (5) responding to social contexts. Individuals reported simultaneous or sequential co-use to balance, prolong or enhance a 'high' (theme 1). Participants engaged in polysubstance use to alleviate withdrawal symptoms, to induce sleep and self-medicate physical pain (theme 2) and to provide relief from emotional distress (theme 3). Other themes included drug-induced cravings (theme 4) and responding to social contexts (theme 5) including both social situations and economic availability. Motivations for polysubstance use may provide important insight into harm reduction and treatment settings solutions.

BACKGROUND:The purpose of this study includes: 1) identifying classes of substance-related needs among Black women, and 2) examining the effect of substance-related need classes and culturally-relevant factors on Black women's use of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and mutual support groups. METHODS:As part of a longitudinal cohort study, Black women were recruited in prison nearing release, on probation, and in the community without involvement in the criminal legal system (CLS, n=565) and followed-up at 18-months. We conducted a baseline latent class analysis of substance-related needs among Black women. Logistic regression models adjusted for culturally-relevant factors to predict the use of treatment and frequency of mutual support group participation over 18-months among Black women who use drugs. RESULTS:Four classes by level of needs were found: low, daily marijuana use, high mental health, and high comorbidity. During the 18-month follow-up, women characterized by the high comorbidity need class and with higher scores of religious well-being were more likely to frequently participate in mutual support groups. Non-CLS-involved women were less likely to engage with both treatment and mutual support groups than women from the prison sample at 18-months. CONCLUSIONS:This study highlights four distinct classes of substance-related needs among Black women, highlighting the complex patterns of behavior and within-racial group differences among Black women. Black women with high comorbidity needs were more likely to participate in mutual support groups, but the latent classes did not predict SUD treatment indicating other non-medical and social contextual need factors may be at play.

This research examined consistency in living in the same geographical area pre- and post-incarceration as a predictor of postrelease substance use and recidivism. Data from a 2018"“2020 cohort of the Criminal Justice Kentucky Treatment Outcome Study (n = 935) were analyzed. Rural"“urban congruence compared the county an individual reported living in prior to incarceration to the county they reported living in at the time of their follow-up. Logistic regressions examined the relationship between postrelease reentry supports and rural"“urban congruence with outcomes. Postrelease, 41% of individuals were urban"“urban congruent, 43% rural"“rural congruent, and 16% incongruent. No differences were found for postrelease substance use. Congruent individuals were more likely to be reincarcerated during follow-up. For rural-congruent individuals, this relationship was influenced by employment. Specifically, they were less likely to be employed postrelease, which increased risk of reincarceration. The current research suggests that postrelease employment challenges may be partially driving recidivism risk among rural-congruent individuals.

The rise in drug overdoses and harms associated with the use of more than one substance has led to increased use of the term "polysubstance use" among researchers, clinicians, and public health officials. However, the term retains no consistent definition across contexts. The current authors convened from disciplines including sociology, epidemiology, neuroscience, and addiction psychiatry to propose a recommended definition of polysubstance use. An iterative process considered authors' formal and informal conversations, insights from relevant symposia, talks, and conferences, as well as their own research and clinical experiences to propose the current definition. Three key concepts were identified as necessary to define polysubstance use: (1) substances involved, (2) timing, and (3) intent. Substances involved include clarifying either (1) the number and type of substances used, (2) presence of more than one substance use disorder, or (3) primary and secondary substance use. The concept of timing is recommended to use clear terms such as simultaneous, sequential, and same-day polysubstance use to describe short-term behaviors (e.g., 30-day windows). Finally, the concept of intent refers to clarifying unintentional use or exposure when possible, and greater attention to motivations of polysubstance use. These three components should be clearly defined in research on polysubstance use to improve consistency across disciplines. Consistent definitions of polysubstance use can aid in the synthesis of evidence to better address an overdose crisis that increasingly involves multiple substances.

BACKGROUND:Preventing progression to moderate or severe opioid use disorder (OUD) among people who exhibit risky opioid use behavior that does not meet criteria for treatment with opioid agonists or antagonists (subthreshold OUD) is poorly understood. The Subthreshold Opioid Use Disorder Prevention (STOP) Trial is designed to study the efficacy of a collaborative care intervention to reduce risky opioid use and to prevent progression to moderate or severe OUD in adult primary care patients with subthreshold OUD. METHODS:The STOP trial is a cluster randomized controlled trial, randomized at the PCP level, conducted in 5 distinct geographic sites. STOP tests the efficacy of the STOP intervention in comparison to enhanced usual care (EUC) in adult primary care patients with risky opioid use that does not meet criteria for moderate-severe OUD. The STOP intervention consists of (1) a practice-embedded nurse care manager (NCM) who provides patient participant education and supports primary care providers (PCPs) in engaging and monitoring patient-participants; (2) brief advice, delivered to patient participants by their PCP and/or prerecorded video message, about health risks of opioid misuse; and (3) up to 6 sessions of telephone health coaching to motivate and support behavior change. EUC consists of primary care treatment as usual, plus printed overdose prevention educational materials and an educational video on cancer screening. The primary outcome measure is self-reported number of days of risky (illicit or nonmedical) opioid use over 180 days, assessed monthly via text message using items from the Addiction Severity Index and the Current Opioid Misuse Measure. Secondary outcomes assess other substance use, mental health, quality of life, and healthcare utilization as well as PCP prescribing and monitoring behaviors. A mixed effects negative binomial model with a log link will be fit to estimate the difference in means between treatment and control groups using an intent-to-treat population. DISCUSSION:Given a growing interest in interventions for the management of patients with risky opioid use, and the need for primary care-based interventions, this study potentially offers a blueprint for a feasible and effective approach to improving outcomes in this population. TRIAL REGISTRATION:Clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT04218201, January 6, 2020.

BACKGROUND:Fentanyl is a pressing concern in the current drug supply. Social media data can provide access to near real-time understanding of drug trends that may complement official mortality data. DESIGN/METHODS:The total number of fentanyl-related posts and the total number of posts for eight drug subreddit categories (alcohol, cannabis, hallucinogens, multi-drug, opioids, over the counter, sedatives, stimulants) were collected from 2013 to 2021 using the Pushshift Reddit dataset. The proportion of fentanyl-related posts as a fragment of total subreddit posts was examined. Linear regressions described the rate of change in post volume over time. RESULTS:Overall, fentanyl-related content increased across drug-related subreddits from 2013 to 2021 (1292% increase, linear trend p ≤ 0.001). Opioid subreddits (30.62 per 1000 posts, linear trend p ≤ 0.001) had the most fentanyl-related content during the examined time period. Multi-drug (5.95 per 1000; p ≤ 0.01), sedative (3.23 per 1000, p ≤ 0.01), and stimulant (1.60 per 1000, p ≤ 0.01) subreddits also had substantial increases in fentanyl-related content. The greatest increases occurred in the multi-drug (1067% 2013:2021) and stimulant (1862% 2014:2021) subreddits. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Fentanyl-related posts on Reddit trended upward, with the fastest rate of change for multi-substance and stimulant subreddits. Beyond opioids, harm reduction and public health messaging should ensure inclusion of individuals who use other drugs.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:Health and social service organizations, including the emergency department (ED) and public assistance programs, constitute a social safety net that may serve as an "access point" for substance use treatment utilization. Racialization of substance use disorder (SUD) and gender disparities in access to treatment contribute to differences in health and social service utilization, including substance use treatment for Black women. We therefore explored the role of various access points in facilitating the use of substance use treatment among Black women with substance use and involvement in the criminal justice system. METHODS:We used data from the Black Women in the Study of Epidemics (B-WISE) project (2008-2011), which recruited Black women who use drugs from community, probation, and prison recruitment settings in Kentucky. B-WISE is a three-wave panel survey collected on a six-month interval. We estimated dynamic panel models to understand whether time-varying use of services influenced women's substance use treatment utilization over 18-months, adjusting for time-invariant characteristics. We stratified the analysis based on where women were recruited (i.e., community, prison, and probation). RESULTS:The sample included 310 persons and 930 person-waves. For the community and prison samples, the use of an ED in the 6 months prior decreased women's likelihood of subsequent substance use treatment use (Coef: -0.21 (95% CI: -0.40, -0.01); -0.33 (95% CI: -0.60, -0.06), respectively). For the probation sample, receiving support from public assistance (i.e., food stamps, housing, cash assistance) increased the likelihood of subsequent substance use treatment use (0.27 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.46)). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Interactions with health and social service organizations predicted Black women's use of substance use treatment services and varied based on their involvement in the criminal justice system. Public assistance venues for Black women on probation may be a point of intervention to increase their access to and use of substance use treatment.

OBJECTIVES:This secondary analysis evaluated opioid-specific validation results of the Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription Medication, and Other Substances (TAPS) tool for screening in primary care. METHODS:This study is a secondary data analysis of the TAPS validation study. Performance of the TAPS tool for screening for unhealthy opioid use (with a score of 1+ for heroin and/or prescription opioids representing a positive screen) was evaluated. Discriminative ability was examined in comparison with reference standard measures across the spectrum of unhealthy opioid use: timeline follow-back with and without oral fluid testing identifying past-month use and the modified Composite International Diagnostic Interview for past-year problem use, opioid use disorder (OUD), and moderate-severe OUD. RESULTS:In a sample of 2000 primary care patients, 114 screened positive for opioids on the TAPS tool. With a TAPS cutoff equal to 1+, the TAPS accurately identified past-month use, problem use, any OUD, and moderate-severe OUD (sensitivities = 68%-85%, specificities = 97%-98%, area under the curve = 0.80-0.91). When past-month use was expanded to include timeline follow-back with oral fluid testing, accuracy declined (52% sensitivity [95% confidence interval, 43%-60%], 98% specific [95% confidence interval, 97%-98%]). CONCLUSIONS:While further testing in a larger population sample may be warranted, given their brevity, simplicity, and accuracy when self-administered, the TAPS opioid items can be used in primary care settings for a spectrum of unhealthy opioid use; however, self-disclosure remains an issue in primary care settings.