People recently released from Oregon prisons have a risk for opioid overdose that is ten times greater than the general public. That’s according to a new study led by a scientist at Oregon State University.
Dan Hartung’s research underscores the need to help former inmates—especially during the first two weeks after release. The study exposes a number of factors which amplify this population’s overdose risk. One is housing instability. Another is lowered tolerance to drugs.
Hartung, a professor in OSU’s College of Pharmacy, said a major finding in the study was just who is at greatest risk. “Women had a higher risk of overdose than men. Largely due to that women have just a higher burden of mental illness and substance use problems at base line than men did in the prison,” he said.
Hartung said more could be done to aggressively treat substance use disorders within the prison walls. The Oregon Department of Corrections has begun providing eligible inmates with medications for opioid use disorder and harm-reduction interventions like Narcan, up to 13 months before release.
Findings were published in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment.
In addition to Dan Hartung of OSU, researchers were Elizabeth Needham Waddell of the Oregon Health & Science University-Portland State University School of Public Health and Katherine A. Kempany of the Oregon Department of Corrections.
The new study, Fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose risk following release from prison: A retrospective cohort study using linked administrative data, is one of the few that takes into account not only fatal overdoses but also non-fatal ones, which often are accompanied by burns, seizures, neuropathy, infections and fall-related injuries, the authors note.
Hartung, Waddell and Kempany analyzed a dataset that combined Oregon death statistics from 2014 to 2018 with corrections, Medicaid, and hospital admission and discharge information.
“We used Medicaid claims data as our main way of detecting overdose events identified in the emergency department or through a hospitalization,” Hartung said. “Nearly 90% of people released from the Oregon Department of Corrections are enrolled in Medicaid.”
This research was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
