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Changes in Admissions to Specialty Addiction Treatment Facilities in California During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Educational Objective
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article
1 Credit CME

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased risk of substance use and a surge in fatal drug overdoses.1,2 However, little is known about how the pandemic affected addiction treatment utilization.3,4 This study evaluated how the initiation of addiction treatment in California changed during the pandemic. We focused on specialty addiction treatment programs because that is where most people receive care for addictions.5

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CME Disclosure Statement: Unless noted, all individuals in control of content reported no relevant financial relationships. If applicable, all relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.

Article Information

Accepted for Publication: May 6, 2021.

Published: July 14, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.17029

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2021 Mark TL et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Tami L. Mark, PhD, MBA, RTI International, 6110 Executive Blvd, Ste 900, Rockville, MD 20852 (Tmark@rti.org).

Author Contributions: Dr Joshi had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: Mark, Gibbons, Barnosky, Padwa.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Mark, Gibbons, Joshi.

Drafting of the manuscript: Mark, Gibbons, Barnosky, Joshi.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Mark, Gibbons, Barnosky, Padwa.

Statistical analysis: Mark, Gibbons, Barnosky, Joshi.

Obtained funding: Mark.

Administrative, technical, or material support: Mark, Padwa.

Supervision: Mark.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: No other disclosures were reported.

Funding/Support: Research reported in this study was funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute award (contract No. HIS-2017C1-6371).

Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Disclaimer: The results and the conclusions are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, its Board of Governors, or its Methodology Committee.

Additional Contributions: Minerva Reyes and Alicia Van Hoy (California Department of Health Care Services) provided the data in used in this study. They were not compensated for this work.

References
1.
Ahmad  FB , Rossen  LM , Sutton  P .  Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts. National Center for Health Statistics. 2021.
2.
Czeisler  MÉ , Lane  RI , Petrosky  E ,  et al.  Mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic—United States, June 24-30, 2020.   MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(32):1049-1057. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6932a1PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
3.
Huskamp  HA , Busch  AB , Uscher-Pines  L , Barnett  ML , Riedel  L , Mehrotra  A .  Treatment of opioid use disorder among commercially insured patients in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.   JAMA. 2020;324(23):2440-2442. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.21512PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
4.
Cance  JD , Doyle  E .  Changes in outpatient buprenorphine dispensing during the COVID-19 pandemic.   JAMA. 2020;324(23):2442-2444. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.22154PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
5.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.  Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. US Department of Health and Human Services; 2020.
6.
Whaley  CM , Pera  MF , Cantor  J ,  et al.  Changes in health services use among commercially insured US populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.   JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(11):e2024984. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.24984PubMedGoogle Scholar
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