The SCOPE team’s peer-reviewed contributions to the opioid-related scientific literature (as of December 2024), presented chronologically by year:
2021
- McCorkle ML, Kisor DF, Freiermuth CE, Sprague JE. Systematic review of Pharmacogenomic Knowledgebase evidence for pharmacogenomic links to the dopamine reward pathway for heroin dependence. Pharmacogenomics. 22(13): 849-857, 2021. 10.2217/pgs-2021-0023
2022
- Vieson J, Yeh AB, Lan Q, Sprague JE. During the COVID-19 pandemic, opioid overdose deaths revert to previous record levels in Ohio. J Addict Med. 16(2):e118-e122, 2022. 10.1097/ADM.0000000000000874
- Ojeda Shaw M, Chen AMH, Miracle T, Delaney E, Freiermuth CE, Sprague JE. Healthcare educational differences in pain management, adverse childhood experiences and their relationship to substance use disorder education. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy. 17(1): 1-8; 2022. 10.1186/s13011-022-00436-8
- Sprague JE, Yeh AB, Lan Q, Vieson J, McCorkle M. COVID-19 economic impact payments and opioid overdose deaths. International J Drug Policy. 103: 103608. 10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103608
2023
- Freiermuth CE, Kisor DF, Lambert J, Braun R, Frey JA, Bachman DJ, Bischof JJ, Lyons MS, Pantalon MV, Punches BE, Ancona R, Sprague JE. Genetic variants associated with opioid use disorder. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 113(5):1089-1095, 2023. 10.1002/cpt.2864
- Schmuhl KK, Nagel S, Tamburro R, Jewell TM, Gilbert E, Gonzalez A, Sullivan DL, Sprague JE. Better together: utilizing an interprofessional course and escape room to educate healthcare students about opioid use disorder. BMC Med Educ. 23:917; 2023. 10.1186/s12909-023-04899-6
2024
- Punches BE, Freiermuth CE, Sprague JE, Brown JL, Hutzel-Dunham E, Lambert J, Braun B, Littlefield A, Frey JA, Bachmann DJ, Bischof JJ, Pantalon MV, Ancona R, Kisor DF, Lyons MS. Screening for problematic opioid use in the emergency department: comparison of two screening measures. J American College Emergency Physicians. 5(1):e13106; 2024. 10.1002/emp2.13106
- Banks ML, Sprague JE. The dopamine 3 receptor as a candidate biomarker and therapeutic for opioid use disorder. Addiction Biol. 29(2):e13369; 2024. 10.1111/adb.13369
- Littlefield AK, Himes KP, Petrovitch D, Freiermuth CE, Braun RS, Brown JL, Bischof JJ, Punches BE, Sprague JE. (2024). The relations between impulsivity, opioid use, and nonmedical prescription opioid use motives: An examination within three large urban emergency departments. Exp. Clin. Psychopharmacol. Advance online publication. 10.1037/pha0000734
- Sprague JE, Freiermuth CE, Lambert J, Braun R, Frey JA, Bachmann DJ, Bischof JJ, Beaumont L, Lyons MS, Pantalon MV, Punches BE, Ancona R, Kisor DF. Opioid use disorder risk alleles in self-reported assigned African American/Afro-Caribbean and European biogeographical genetic ancestry groups and in males and females. Pharmacogenomics J. 24:23; 2024. 10.1038/s41397-024-00337-y
- Canfield JR, Canfield KV, Sprague JE. Para-fluorofentanyl: coincidence or intentional? Addiction. 119(9):1655-1656; 2024. 10.1111/add.16527
- Petrovitch D, Himes KP, Jump A, Freiermuth CE, Braun RS, Brown JL, Lyons MS, Punches BE, Sprague JE, Littlefield AK. State program enables the identification of factors associated with naloxone awareness, self-efficacy, and use for overdose reversal: a cross-sectional, observational study in an urban emergency department population. J Subst Use Addict Treat. 167: 209506; 2024. 10.1016/j.josat.2024.209506
- Lambert J, Petrovitch D, Himes KP, Freiermuth CE, Braun RS, Brown JL, Bischof JJ, Lyons MS, Punches BE, Littlefield AK, Kisor DF, Sprague JE. Association of genetic variants in CYP3A5, DRD3, and NK1R with opioid overdose. Chemico-Biological Interactions 403(1): 111242; 2024. 10.1016/j.cbi.2024.111242
- Petrovitch D, Himes KP, Quarles E, Freiermuth CE, Braun RS, Lambert JW, Brown JL, Lyons MS, Punches BE, Sprague JE, Littlefield AK. Negative urgency accounts for associations between internalizing symptoms and lifetime nonfatal opioid overdose among patients from three urban Ohio emergency departments. Exp. Clin. Psychopharmacol. In press
- Canfield JR, Sprague JE. Pediatric overdose deaths increase as the fourth wave of the opioid epidemic creates a perfect storm. J. Ped. Pharmacol. Ther. In press
- Lambert J, Arter S, Duah H, Xavier T, Sprague JE. Health outcomes in children with prenatal opioid exposure with and without neonatal abstinence syndrome in the first seven years of life: an observational cohort study. J Nurs Scholarsh. 00:1-13; 2024. 10.1111/jnu.13000
- Himes KP, Petrovitch D, Freiermuth CE, Bachmann DJ, Bischof JJ, Braun RS, Brown JL, Frey JA, Lyons MS, Pantalon MV, Punches BE, Sprague JE, Littlefield AK. Are opioid use disorder assessments in the emergency department biased? An examination across sex, race, and employment status using item response theory. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2024 Nov 17:91:186-189. 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2024.11.007 Online ahead of print.
These resource links provide a more in-depth look at what factors power the opioid epidemic and the search for solutions. The research was among the sources the Attorney General’s SCOPE team used in evaluating what recommendations to make to improve Ohio’s response to the crisis.
Drug use in the U.S.: Every year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a section of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, sends field agents nationwide to conduct comprehensive household interviews on substance use and disorders, mental health and treatment services.
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health
Unintended consequences of help: This working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research looked at how interventions to decrease the abuse of prescription opioids — such as the introduction of an abuse-deterrent version of OxyContin in 2010 — had the unintended consequence of increasing the use of illegal opioids, such as heroin.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w23031
Medical school recommendations: A task force of medical school leaders and government officials in Massachusetts developed 10 core competencies that every doctor should know about prescribing opioids.
https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/FullText/2016/10000/Developing_Core_Competencies_for_the_Prevention.13.aspx
Patient use patterns: Both of these studies look at patients who have surgery and then are prescribed opioids, including how many of the pills are taken and how they are stored.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147972
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2644905
The inside job: An advocacy group launched by a medical technology company commissioned this study of hospital executives and medical providers to better understand the issue of health care workers who divert opiates away from patients for personal use or sale, including how to solve the problem.
https://go.bd.com/BD-Institute-for-Medication-Management-Excellence-Drug-Diversion.html
Repairing pathologies: In this analysis based in behavioral economics, researchers examine the internal and environmental factors that keep a drug abuser coming back to his or her drug of choice, including how to counter those “reinforcement pathologies.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4501268/
A cost for business: Human resources professionals reported in this survey that their companies are generally unprepared to deal with workers’ opioid addictions.
https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/survey-hr-pros-not-equipped-to-address-opioids-in-the-workplace
Caught in the tide: Child hospitalizations for opioid poisonings increased nearly twofold from 1997 to 2012 as opioid prescriptions nationwide saw significant increases, according to this study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2571466
Brain diagnosis: This research compiles what is known about how addiction changes brain activity — including compromising the reward system and overactivating stress systems — in an effort to find ways to diagnose drug use disorder in its various intensities.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01586.x?sid=nlm%3Apubmed