"It's Like A Partnership": Exploring the Primary Care Experiences and Patient-Defined Goals of People Who Use Drugs.

BACKGROUND: Primary care is an important yet underutilized resource in addressing the overdose crisis. Previous studies have identified important aspects of primary care for people who use drugs (PWUD) and have found patient involvement in healthcare decisions and goal-setting to be especially critical. However, there has been limited research describing the primary care goals of PWUD. In harm reduction settings, where it is imperative that PWUD set their own goals, this research gap becomes especially relevant. OBJECTIVE: To explore how PWUD navigate primary care with a focus on understanding their primary care goals. DESIGN: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. PARTICIPANTS: PWUD currently engaged in primary care at the Respectful and Equitable Access to Comprehensive Healthcare (REACH) Program, a harm reduction-based primary care program in New York City. APPROACH: Between June 2022 and August 2022, we conducted 17 semi-structured interviews. Informed by phenomenology, transcripts were coded using both inductive and deductive codes and themes were developed using thematic analysis approaches. KEY RESULTS: Phenomenological analysis identified four core components that, together, created an experience that participants described as "a partnership" between patient and provider: (1) patient-provider collaboration around patient-defined healthcare goals; (2) support provided by harm reduction-based approaches to primary care anchored in incrementalism and flexibility; (3) care teams' ability to address healthcare system fragmentation; and (4) the creation of social connections through primary care. This holistic partnership fostered positive primary care experiences and supported participants' self-defined care goals, thereby facilitating meaningful care outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: To best meet the primary care goals of PWUD, these findings underscore the importance of primary care providers and programs facilitating such partnerships through organizational-level support anchored in harm reduction. Future research should explore how these experiences in primary care affect patient health outcomes, ultimately shaping best practices in the provision of high-quality primary care for PWUD.

Providers' knowledge and perception of xylazine in the unregulated drug supply: a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: Xylazine is increasingly prevalent in the unregulated opioid supply in the United States. Exposure to this adulterant can lead to significant harm, including prolonged sedation and necrotic wounds. In the absence of literature describing healthcare providers' experiences with treating patients who have been exposed to xylazine, we aimed to explore what gaps must be addressed to improve healthcare education and best practices. METHODS: From October 2023 to February 2024, we conducted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study, with (1) a quantitative survey phase utilizing convenience sampling of healthcare providers treating patients in Connecticut and (2) a qualitative semi-structured interview phase utilizing purposive sampling of providers with experience treating patients with xylazine exposure. Summary statistics from the survey were tabulated; interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-eight eligible healthcare providers participated in our survey. Most participants had heard of xylazine (n = 69, 95.8%) and had some knowledge about this adulterant; however, fewer reported seeing one or more patients exposed to xylazine (n = 46, 59.8%). After sampling from this subgroup, we conducted fifteen in-depth interviews. This qualitative phase revealed five themes: (1) while xylazine is novel and of concern, this is not necessarily exceptional (i.e., there are other emerging issues for patients who use drugs); (2) participants perceived that xylazine was increasingly prevalent in the drug supply, even if they were not necessarily seeing more patients with xylazine-related outcomes (XROs); (3) patients primarily presented with non-XROs, making it difficult to know when conversations about xylazine were appropriate; (4) patients with XROs may experience issues accessing healthcare; (5) providers and their patients are learning together about how to minimize XROs and reduce the sense of helplessness in the face of a novel adulterant. CONCLUSIONS: Xylazine-specific education for healthcare providers is currently insufficient. Improving this education, as well as resources (e.g., drug checking technologies) and data (e.g., research on prevention and treatment of XROs), is crucial to improve care for patients who use drugs.

Housing-based syringe services programs to improve access to safer injecting equipment for people who inject drugs in Vancouver, Canada: a spatially oriented qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Housing environments shape injection drug-related risks and harms and thus represent a critical implementation setting for syringe services programs (SSPs). As critical harm reduction measures, SSPs provide safe injecting equipment to people who inject drugs (PWID). Vancouver, Canada, has well-established syringe distribution programs through which PWID have low-threshold access to unlimited syringes and related injecting equipment, including through non-profit operated supportive housing and single-room occupancy hotels. This study examines the role of housing-based SSPs in distributing injecting equipment to PWID in Vancouver. METHODS: Between January and March 2020, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted in Vancouver with 26 PWID. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded. Salient themes were identified using inductive and deductive approaches. RESULTS: Many participants accessed SSPs in housing facilities and expressed preference for these programs over those offered at other locations and through other health and social services. Three major themes emerged to explain this preference. First, most participants injected in the buildings where they resided, and housing-based SSPs made injecting equipment available when and where it was most needed. Second, many participants preferred to avoid carrying syringes outside of the places where they inject due to fears that syringe possession may lead to criminal charges or confiscation of syringes and/or illicit drugs by police. Third, for some participants, anti-drug user stigma and concerns over unwillingly disclosing their drug use hindered access to SSPs outside of housing settings. Programs operated within housing facilities often offered greater client anonymity along with more supportive and less stigmatizing environments, particularly in the presence of peer staff. CONCLUSION: The current study advances understanding of access to injecting equipment in a setting with city-wide syringe distribution programs. Our findings underscore the benefits of housing-based SSPs and encourage the expansion of such services to maximize access to harm reduction supports for PWID.

Xylazine and Overdoses: Trends, Concerns, and Recommendations.

Xylazine is a nonopioid veterinary anesthetic and sedative that is increasingly detected in the illicit drug supply in the United States. Data indicate a striking prevalence of xylazine among opioid-involved overdose deaths. The emergence of xylazine in the illicit drug supply poses many unknowns and potential risks for people who use drugs. The public health system needs to respond by increasing testing to determine the prevalence of xylazine, identifying its potential toxicity at various exposure levels, and taking mitigating action to prevent harms. Currently, there is little testing capable of identifying xylazine in drug supplies, which limits the possibility of public health intervention, implementation of harm reduction strategies, or development of novel treatment strategies. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(8):1212-1216. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306881).

Violence at Rikers Island: Does the Doctor Make It Worse? A Clinician Ethnographer's Work Amidst Carceral Structural Violence.

In this article, I describe the dilemmas of working as a physician-ethnographer within the Rikers Island jail healthcare system before and at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in April 2020. The Rikers Island jail system in New York City has been in the national spotlight as a space of violence, trauma, and death amidst calls to decarcerate by community members and abolition advocates. This article is a personal reflection on the labor and subjectivity of healthcare providers and their positionality to multiple axes of structural and interpersonal violence while attempting to provide care in carceral institutions. I observe how COVID-19 functioned as an additional form of structural violence for incarcerated people. Clinical ethnography remains an essential tool for understanding complex social phenomena such as violence. However, physician-ethnographers working in these spaces of structural violence can have unique and conflicting constraints: tasked with providing evidence-based medicine but also simultaneously participating in an unusual form of labor that is an amalgamation of care, social suffering, and punishment. Despite and across at-times conflicting roles and obligations, I propose that these fragmented subjectivities can foment social criticism, propel advocacy toward decarceration, and produce a critically engaged dialogue between fields of anthropology and medicine toward a goal of health justice.

Drawing on Black and Queer Communities' Harm Reduction Histories to Improve Overdose Prevention Strategies and Policies.

Harm reduction emerged as a set of strategies developed by and for people who use opioids and other substances and strive to do so in ways that are as safe as possible. This article reviews histories of Black and queer community-based harm reduction practices and suggests how these histories can inform harm reduction policy and guide development and implementation of anti-overdose interventions.

In Support of the Decriminalization of Personal Drug and Paraphernalia Use and Possession: Position Statement of AMERSA, Inc (Association for Multidisciplinary Education, Research, Substance Use and Addiction).

More than 25% of all arrests made nationwide are related to drug offenses, affecting almost 1.2 million people and their social networks. Furthermore, roughly 20% of people in jails and prisons across the United States are incarcerated for a drug offense and millions more are under community supervision for these charges. This criminalization of drug use has negatively affected the health and well-being of people who use drugs (PWUD) and their communities. Decriminalization-a process of removing criminal sanctions for a previously criminalized behavior-of drug use is central to harm reduction as it mitigates these negative consequences of drug use and supports the health of PWUD. As such, AMERSA supports the decriminalization of drug and paraphernalia possession for personal use for all currently illicit drugs and all associated equipment. AMERSA continues to strongly advocate for the funding of harm reduction strategies and addiction services to improve the health and well-being of PWUD since decriminalization without complementary funding for harm reduction services, addiction treatment services, and social safety nets will be incomplete.

Development of a Patient and Clinician Informed Website on Injection Drug Use Related Infective Endocarditis.

BACKGROUND: Few patient-facing educational materials and interventions exist for the prevention of injection drug use-related infective endocarditis (IDU-IE). We developed a patient and clinician-informed website for patients about IDU-IE to promote education and prevention strategies. METHODS: This mixed-methods study integrated surveys and semi-structured interviews with patients and clinician to develop a patient website about IDU-IE. Patient participants included hospitalized adults with an opioid use disorder, history of injection drug use, and an injection drug use-related infection. Interprofessional healthcare clinicians including trainees participated. A baseline survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients to understand knowledge of IDU-IE and preferences in educational materials content and format. Interviews were analyzed using rapid qualitative analysis. Results informed development of the patient website. Finally, patients and clinicians provided 2 rounds of survey feedback after reviewing the website, assessing the likelihood of using and recommending it to others, helpfulness of information in the website sections, and content satisfaction. RESULTS: Patient participants (n = 15) reported low baseline understanding of injection practice and risk of IDU-IE. After reviewing the website (n = 17), patients reported they were very likely to recommend the website as a reference for themselves (mean of 4.3; 4 = very likely) and for others (mean = 4.3). They found the following sections, on average, to be very helpful (4 = very helpful): complications from injection drug use (4.4), safer injection practice (4.4), and information about infective endocarditis (4.4). Patients on average were satisfied with the website content overall (4.8). Clinicians (n = 27) reported, on average, being very likely to recommend this website to a patient (4.4) and to use the website to counsel patients (4.1). CONCLUSIONS: A patient and clinician-informed website on IDU-IE is acceptable for patients and clinicians to use as a patient education resource to help prevent IDU-IE-related harms.

In Support of Community Drug Checking Programs: Position Statement of AMERSA, Inc. (Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction).

BACKGROUND: Position statements clarify key issues that are in alignment with the vision, mission, and values of the AMERSA, Inc. (Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction). This Position Statement, endorsed by the AMERSA Board of Directors on October 3, 2023, amplifies the position of the organization, guides their activities, and informs the public and policymakers on the organization's stance on this issue. ISSUE: The unregulated drug supply in the United States evolves constantly, leaving those who use drugs potentially unaware of new adulterants in their drugs. Not knowing that information can leave people vulnerable to serious adverse events such as fatal overdoses, wounds, and other health consequences. Without real-time data on the composition of drugs available in a community, healthcare providers and public health practitioners are left with insufficient data, making it increasingly difficult to know how to best serve people who use drugs. In this context, community-based drug checking has become recognized as an important harm reduction strategy with the potential to provide those who use drugs with more information about their supply. RECOMMENDATIONS: It is imperative to expand funding and increase access to drug checking programs in communities across the United States. Key policy changes, such as those related to decriminalizing drug and drug paraphernalia possession, are needed to increase the utilization of drug checking programs. Protection of persons who use drugs through harm reduction strategies, including drug checking programs needs to be widely available and accessible.

Doing Our Best in a Broken System: The Urgent Need for Expansion of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder Treatments in the United States.

In reply: In this commentary, we respond to Dr Vogel and Dr Dürstelar's letter to our original piece "A Plea From People Who Use Drugs to Clinicians: New Ways to Initiate Buprenorphine Are Urgently Needed in the Fentanyl Era" published in this journal in July to August 2022. We agree with much of their comment on buprenorphine initiation and point to the need for rapid expansion of medication for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatments here in the United States. It is critical to understand the context of current buprenorphine and methadone access. We point out how the treatment of OUD with agonist therapy remains limited to methadone or buprenorphine despite an increasingly toxic drug supply within our particular legal and regulatory environment and call for urgent research and pilot programs to trial additional agonist therapies for those with opioid OUD as well as regulatory changes to increase access to both methadone and buprenorphine.

Safety in solitude? Competing risks and drivers of solitary drug use among women who inject drugs and implications for overdose detection.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Solitary drug use (SDU) can amplify risks of fatal overdose. We examined competing risks and drivers of SDU, as well as harm reduction strategies implemented during SDU episodes, among women who inject drugs (WWID). DESIGN: A cross-sectional qualitative study, including telephone and face-to-face in-depth interviews. SETTING: Baltimore City, MD, USA. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-seven WWID (mean age = 39 years, 67% white, 74% injected drugs daily) recruited via outreach and street intercept (April-September 2021). MEASUREMENTS: Interviews explored the physical (i.e. indoor/private, outdoor/public) and social (i.e. alone, accompanied) risk environments in which drug use occurred. Guided by the principles of emergent design, we used thematic analysis to interrogate textual data, illuminating women's preferences/motivations for SDU and strategies for minimizing overdose risks when using alone. FINDINGS: Many participants reported experiences with SDU, despite expressed preferences for accompanied drug use. SDU motivations clustered around three primary drivers: (1) avoiding opioid withdrawal, (2) preferences for privacy when using drugs and (3) safety concerns, including threats of violence. Participants nevertheless acknowledged the dangers of SDU and, at times, took steps to mitigate overdose risk, including naloxone possession, communicating to peers when using alone ('spotting') and using drugs in public spaces. CONCLUSIONS: WWID appear to engage frequently in SDU due to constraints of the physical and social environments in which they use drugs. They express a preference for accompanied drug use in most cases and report implementing strategies to mitigate their overdose risk, especially when using drugs alone.

Recognition and Treatment of Wounds in Persons Using Xylazine: A Case Report From New Haven, Connecticut.

BACKGROUND: Xylazine is an α 2 -adrenergic agonist that is commonly used as a veterinary tranquilizer and is increasingly present in the unregulated US drug supply since at least 2019. There are many suspected clinical complications of xylazine use, including unusual skin wounds, atypical overdose presentations, and possible dependence and withdrawal syndromes. However, there are few reports of cutaneous manifestations of xylazine in patients who inject drugs that can guide diagnosis and management in patients with confirmed xylazine toxicology. CASE SUMMARY: We present the cases of 3 stably housed patients in Connecticut with opioid use disorder and intravenous use of fentanyl who presented with atypical, chronic wounds at the site of injection drug use. Xylazine toxicology sent on all 3 patients was positive. All patients were seen by wound care and dermatology, and 1 patient was followed by infectious diseases. Wound care management strategies are discussed as well as harm reduction strategies. For all patients, the dose of their medication for opioid use disorder was increased to decrease frequency of drug use given concern that patients were exposed to a drug supply containing xylazine. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This case report presents wound characteristics that raise the index of suspicion for xylazine-involved injection wounds and might assist in their diagnosis and management. There is urgent need for more reporting of such cases as well as rigorous research to understand the potential impact of xylazine on people who use drugs. Multidisciplinary best practices should be established.

Perspectives of Clinicians and Staff at Community-Based Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Settings on Linkages With Emergency Department-Initiated Buprenorphine Programs.

Importance: An increasing number of emergency departments (EDs) are initiating buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) and linking patients to ongoing community-based treatment, yet community-based clinician and staff perspectives regarding this practice have not been characterized. Objective: To explore perspectives and experiences regarding ED-initiated buprenorphine among community-based clinicians and staff in geographically distinct regions. Design, Setting, and Participants: This qualitative study reports findings from Project ED Health, a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation study designed to evaluate the impact of implementation facilitation on ED-initiated buprenorphine with referral to ongoing medication treatment. Clinicians and staff from community-based treatment programs were identified by urban academic EDs as potential referral sites for ongoing OUD treatment in 4 cities across the US in a formative evaluation as having the capability to continue medication treatment. Focus groups were held from April 1, 2018, to January 11, 2019, to examine community OUD treatment clinician and staff perspectives on accepting patients who have received ED-initiated buprenorphine. Data were analyzed from August 2020 to August 2022. Main Outcomes and Measures: Data collection and analysis were grounded in the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) implementation science framework, focusing on domains including evidence, context, and facilitation. Results: A total of 103 individuals (mean [SD] age, 45.3 [12.0] years; 76 female and 64 White) participated in 14 focus groups (groups ranged from 3-22 participants). Participants shared negative attitudes toward buprenorphine and variable attitudes toward ED-initiated buprenorphine. Prominent barriers included the community site treatment capacity and structure as well as payment and regulatory barriers. Perceived factors that could facilitate this model included additional substance use disorder training for ED staff, referrals and communication, greater inclusion of peer navigators, and addressing sociostructural marginalization that patients faced. Conclusions and Relevance: In this study of community-based clinicians and staff positioned to deliver OUD treatment, participants reported many barriers to successful linkages for patients who received ED-initiated buprenorphine. Strategies to improve these linkages included educating communities and programs, modeling low-barrier philosophies, and using additional staff trained in addiction as resources to improve transitions from EDs to community partners.

A Plea From People Who Use Drugs to Clinicians: New Ways to Initiate Buprenorphine Are Urgently Needed in the Fentanyl Era.

With the worst opioid overdose death crisis in the United States history, urgent new approaches to assist people who use drugs onto medication for opioid use disorder are necessary. In this commentary, addiction medicine clinicians and drug user union representatives align to argue that conventional ways of buprenorphine initiation that require periods of withdrawal must be augmented with additional novel approaches to initiation. In the fentanyl era, members of the New England Users Union and Portland Users Union report encountering precipitated withdrawal, being unable to stop using full agonist opioids for a required period of time, and difficulty initiating this medication that could offer them some stability and life-saving treatment. People who use drugs should be involved at all levels with ongoing research, clinical and policy efforts to improve buprenorphine initiation as their lives and their suffering are at stake.

Harm Reduction in Health Care Settings.

Harm reduction is an approach to reduce the risk of harms to an individual using substances without requiring abstinence. This review discusses substance-specific interventions for opioids, alcohol, and stimulants that can minimize harms for individuals who use these substances. Topics discussed include overdose prevention, infection prevention, and low-barrier substance use disorder treatment.

Using a structural vulnerability framework to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of Medicaid beneficiaries receiving substance use treatment in New York City.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted low-income individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) in New York City (NYC) during the beginning of the pandemic, using a structural competency and structural vulnerability theoretical framework and a qualitative research approach. DATA SOURCES: Primary qualitative data were collected from racial/ethnic minority adults enrolled in Medicaid receiving outpatient substance use treatment (e.g., medication, counseling) in NYC. STUDY DESIGN: Semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews (N = 20) were conducted during "stay-at-home" orders in NYC, the first epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Interviews were conducted over the phone during the earlier stages of the pandemic, between April 2020 and June 2020. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted and audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Three themes were yielded from our thematic analysis: (1) COVID-19 heightened food insecurity and housing conditions increased risks of infection; (2) stay-at-home orders limited access to resources but had positive impacts in strengthening social relationships and reducing substance use triggers; and (3) although COVID-19 created challenges for treatment, most described that SUD care improved during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: While COVID-19 exacerbated numerous structural vulnerabilities among low-income individuals with SUD, programmatic adaptations to COVID-19 SUD care, including telehealth and loosening restrictions around medications for opioid use disorders mitigated past difficulties that patients had faced. Reducing structural vulnerabilities for Medicaid patients will require continuation of telehealth treatment delivery, retaining flexible medication regulations, and mobilizing community resources to mitigate economic disparities.