European countries. Policies implemented by the police, social norms, and legal context surrounding overdoses all get in the way of what the study called adequate responses to the phenomena of drug addiction overdoses.
The research stated that e-health tools — electronic tools that work to promote wellness and use the internet to allow people to monitor their health — are particularly helpful to those struggling with an opioid addiction by providing access to health resources, proliferating information, and therefore de-stigmatizing drug addiction. In addition, the study reported, e-health tools increased the rates of people who received treatment.
The study revealed that more than 49 percent of the participants changed their answers at least once. Most changes were related to people being released from prison/rehab, injecting drugs intravenously, and combining two or more drugs. Also, 45 percent of the people chose to indicate that they would consider changing their addiction behaviors.
They concluded by emphasizing the importance of tending to patient risk perception to prevent future drug deaths. The ORION program successfully increased participants’ perceptions of their overdose risk, the study said, especially among women, who showed an increased risk of overdose compared to the men who used ORION.
Author: Ryan Beitler
An editor and contributor to Addiction Now, Ryan Beitler is a journalist, fiction writer, musician, and travel writer. He has written for Paste Magazine, OC Weekly, numerous addiction recovery publications, and his travel blog Our Little Blue Rock. He lives in Southern California. Contact Ryan at ryanrbeitler@gmail.com or ryanb@addictionnow.com.
