“It’s difficult for people who use drugs to be open about [their drug use] because of the stigma it carries and the potential of criminal justice involvement,” Young said. “We tried to create a welcoming environment in our field office, and we put ourselves out there.”
The funding will further ongoing substance use disorder treatment research in collaboration with Sharon Walsh at the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research (CDAR) and Mei-Chuan Ko at the Wake Forest School of Medicine.
The team suggests a number of changes to help rebuild trust and reduce stigma for opioid use disorder in rural communities; they also suggest that wholesalers change algorithms to track buprenorphine separately from other opioids.
The ambitious study is organized into six phases, beginning with the basic preparations and leading into actual implementation and monitoring of various evidence-based strategies to reduce opioid deaths.
A new study led by UK researcher April Young and Emory researcher Hannah Cooper shows that a number of pharmacies in the Appalachian region of Kentucky are limiting the dispensing of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD).
"It's a wonderful showcase of the breadth and depth of our research." Substance Use Research Day highlights the impactful work of UK faculty, staff and students.
The HEALing Communities Initiative grant from the National Institutes of Health totals $87 million, the largest in its history, and is focused over the next three years on reducing opioid-related deaths by 40 percent in 16 counties in KY.
UK recently received $3 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on General Medical Sciences to fund new opioid-related research in the criminal justice system.
UK officials provided updates on the Kentucky Viral Hepatitis Treatment Project (KeY Treat), a three-year, $15 million study co-funded by NCI and NIDA with the ultimate goal of eradicating the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Perry County, KY.
Carrie Oser is studying what influences the decision to use medication for opioid use disorder (OUD) by leading the GATE study, a five-year project. Only 7% of people with OUD receive medications.
