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Receiving opioid treatment, particularly opioid agonist treatment (OAT), in prison and after release into the community substantially cuts the risk of death among people who use drugs, a new study shows.
Researchers led by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Center (NDARC) say their findings, published in The Lancet Public Health, suggest that high coverage of OAT is crucial to reducing drug-related harm.
Opioid treatment, such as methadone and buprenorphine, can reduce opioid cravings and prevent withdrawal symptoms in those with opioid dependence.
"This review supports a considerable body of evidence showing that OAT interventions are integral to significantly reducing deaths both in prison and post-release," said Christel Macdonald, an NDARC research fellow and first author of the paper.
“We know that being incarcerated is associated with significant harm, including higher rates of substance use, mortality and self-harm, than the general population. Therefore, it is vital that effective interventions to reduce these harms are implemented in prison settings.”
The first-of-its-kind global review of 126 studies—with a combined 586,000 participants—encompassing 18 interventions aimed at reducing drug-related harms in people who have been incarcerated also shows that therapeutic community interventions reduce re-arrest and reincarceration rates.
While previous studies have mostly focused on specific interventions or only assessed their impact on drug use and recidivism, none have examined the benefits of interventions delivered after release from prison.
The researchers found that access to opioid treatment among people who have been incarcerated cuts the risk of death—both in prison and after release—by about 75%, and this effect was particularly strong in the first four weeks after release.
There was also evidence of therapeutic community interventions reducing the risk of re-arrest at 6-12 months by 28%, and reincarceration by 34%.
The authors said that the findings had important implications for public health and demonstrate the importance of such interventions in reducing drug-related harm.
Read the full article about opioid treatment in prisons at Medical Xpress.