By Robert Preidt, HealthDay Press Reporter
( HealthDay)
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News)– No magic bullet exists for ending the U.S. opioid crisis, however there’s enthusiastic news for one high-risk population: Supplying addiction medication in prisons lowers the chances of addicts being re-arrested after their release, brand-new research study programs.
” Research Studies like this provide much-needed proof and momentum for prisons and jails to much better make it possible for the treatment, education and support group that people with an opioid use disorder requirement to help them recuperate and prevent reincarceration,” stated Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Substance Abuse (NIDA).
” Not using treatment to people with opioid use disorder in prisons and jails can have disastrous repercussions, consisting of a return to use and increased danger of overdose and death after release,” she kept in mind in an institute press release.
People with opioid addiction are connected on illegal drugs like heroin, effective pain relievers such as oxycodone (OxyContin) or artificial opioids like fentanyl.
The research study consisted of 469 grownups imprisoned in 2 rural Massachusetts prisons, one in Franklin County (197 detainees) and the other in Hampshire County (272 detainees). A lot of were male, white and aged 34 to 35. All had opioid addiction, which is an epidemic in the United States, and left the prisons in between Jan. 1, 2015 and April 30, 2019.
Throughout that time, the Franklin County jail started using the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine to detainees, while the Hampshire County facility did not.
An analysis of the prisons’ electronic reservation systems revealed that less than half of the individuals from the Franklin County jail re-offended, compared with 63% of those from the Hampshire County jail.
New criminal charges were laid versus 36% of individuals from the Franklin County jail, compared to 47% of those from the Hampshire County jail. While about 4 out of 10 of those in the Hampshire County group wound up back in jail, the rate was simply over 20% in the Franklin County group.
In General, the Franklin County group had a 32% decrease in probation infractions, re-incarcerations or court charges when they provided the buprenorphine treatment compared with when they did not provide the medication, the findings revealed.
A big part of that distinction was due to a decline in home criminal offenses, according to the NIDA-funded research study. The outcomes were released Jan. 18 in the journal Drug and Alcoholism
” A lot of information currently reveal that using medications for opioid use disorder to people in jail can prevent overdoses, withdrawal and other negative health results after the individual is launched,” stated research study co-author Dr. Peter Friedmann, of Baystate Health, in Springfield, Mass.
” Though this research study was done with a little sample, the outcomes reveal convincingly that on leading of these favorable health results, offering these medications in jail can break the repressive cycle of arrest, reconviction and reincarceration that takes place in the lack of sufficient help and resources,” he stated. “That’s big.”
SOURCE: U.S. National Institute on Substance abuse, press release, Jan. 18, 2022
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