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Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic
Persons with drug use disorders are an underserved and stigmatized population, and the COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate these issues. The discussion around those with drug use disorders in the midst of the pandemic has focused on the need to ensure uninterrupted treatment access; however, very few...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier Inc.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7575533/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33109432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2020.108177 |
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author | Murphy, Sean M. Yoder, James Pathak, Jyotishman Avery, Jonathan |
author_facet | Murphy, Sean M. Yoder, James Pathak, Jyotishman Avery, Jonathan |
author_sort | Murphy, Sean M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Persons with drug use disorders are an underserved and stigmatized population, and the COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate these issues. The discussion around those with drug use disorders in the midst of the pandemic has focused on the need to ensure uninterrupted treatment access; however, very few in this population actually receive treatment, and retention is a substantial issue among those who do. Evidence from other chronic conditions suggests persons at high risk for severe COVID-19 complications are foregoing care due to fear of contracting the virus. Persons with drug use disorders tend to fall into this high-risk category, and thus may be avoiding healthcare facilities. Our data suggest this is true. If so, adverse outcomes, and increased severity of use disorders and associated health complications, could become prevalent. Clinicians should identify persons with drug use disorders who may be foregoing treatment, and engage them using methods that minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7575533 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Elsevier Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75755332020-10-21 Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic Murphy, Sean M. Yoder, James Pathak, Jyotishman Avery, Jonathan J Subst Abuse Treat Article Persons with drug use disorders are an underserved and stigmatized population, and the COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate these issues. The discussion around those with drug use disorders in the midst of the pandemic has focused on the need to ensure uninterrupted treatment access; however, very few in this population actually receive treatment, and retention is a substantial issue among those who do. Evidence from other chronic conditions suggests persons at high risk for severe COVID-19 complications are foregoing care due to fear of contracting the virus. Persons with drug use disorders tend to fall into this high-risk category, and thus may be avoiding healthcare facilities. Our data suggest this is true. If so, adverse outcomes, and increased severity of use disorders and associated health complications, could become prevalent. Clinicians should identify persons with drug use disorders who may be foregoing treatment, and engage them using methods that minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Elsevier Inc. 2021-02 2020-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7575533/ /pubmed/33109432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2020.108177 Text en © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Article Murphy, Sean M. Yoder, James Pathak, Jyotishman Avery, Jonathan Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title | Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full | Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr | Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short | Healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort | healthcare utilization patterns among persons who use drugs during the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7575533/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33109432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2020.108177 |
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