Researchers at Rutgers Health have been awarded a $2.9 million federal grant to launch a five-year study investigating drug overdose trends, risk factors, and treatment outcomes among adolescents and young adults.
The project, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the National Institutes of Health, aims to identify how post-overdose interventions can prevent future fatalities in this demographic.
The study will utilize 10 years of national Medicaid data to examine individuals between the ages of 12 and 29 who have experienced an overdose since 2016. Because Medicaid serves as the largest source of health insurance for youth in the United States, it provides a broad population for researchers to analyze patterns in overdose incidents and subsequent care.
While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a sharp rise in drug overdose deaths over the last decade, many individuals survive these events. Rutgers researchers noted that while a prime opportunity for intervention exists while a patient is receiving immediate treatment for an overdose, there is currently limited data regarding what happens once a patient is discharged from the hospital.
Hillary Samples, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and the study’s lead principal investigator, emphasized the high stakes of surviving an initial incident.
Experiencing one nonfatal overdose increases your chances of having another overdose that could potentially be fatal.
Life-threatening drug overdoses often mean patients need mental health or addiction treatment, yet we don’t always know if patients are connected with those vital services or what types of follow up care they receive.
The research team intends to evaluate several critical factors, including:
- The specific types of drugs involved in overdose incidents.
- Whether the overdose was classified as intentional self-poisoning.
- The specific treatments patients received following the event.
- Whether those treatments are associated with a reduced risk of death or repeat overdoses.
The project will be conducted by Samples and fellow principal investigator Greta Bushnell, both of whom are members of the Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Treatment Science at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research. The researchers plan to evaluate the data within the context of a changing drug landscape, specifically noting the rise of fentanyl and other novel substances.
The study will examine how overdose risks change across different developmental stages, from early and late adolescence into emerging and young adulthood. Researchers believe that understanding these shifts and the role of behavioral health treatment can help prevent mortality from drug poisoning, suicide, and related causes of death.
According to Samples, the ultimate objective is to provide clinicians with the information necessary to improve strategies for post-overdose interventions, specifically targeting the vulnerable transition from hospital care to community-based treatment.