ArticleAddiction (Abingdon, England)2019
Modelling the combined impact of interventions in averting deaths during a synthetic-opioid overdose epidemic.
Article in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 117 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
117 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 238 citations in OpenAlex.
- Barriers and facilitators to initiating and adhering to harm reduction services among people who inject drugs in the United States: a systematic review.Harm reduction journal · 2026Pooled it
- Priority setting for Canadian Take-Home Naloxone best practice guideline development: an adapted online Delphi method.Harm reduction journal · 2022Guideline
- Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder and Associated Factors Among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review.JAMA pediatrics · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Simulation Models to Track and Address the Opioid Crisis.Epidemiologic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Emergency care with lay responders in underserved populations: a systematic review.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2021Pooled it
- Organizational perspectives on the impacts of scaling up overdose education and naloxone distribution in Kentucky.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Trial
- Association of skin infections with sharing of injection drug preparation equipment among people who inject drugs.The International journal on drug policy · 2021Trial
- Just the facts: identifying and managing opioid use disorder in the emergency department.CJEM · 2026Article
- Take-home naloxone (THN) ownership among a community-based cohort of sex workers who use drugs in metro vancouver: longitudinal trends and structural determinants (2017-2024).Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Participant perspectives on a safe supply program in Vancouver, Canada: impacts, satisfaction and improvement priorities.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Access to health and harm reduction services during drug decriminalization in British Columbia, Canada: a mixed-method study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Risk reduction behaviours following the detection of unexpected drugs through community drug checking: a cross-sectional study.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- How population-level drug supply data are integrated into health outcomes research: a scoping review.Epidemiologic reviews · 2026Article
- Article
- Population-Level Health Benefits and Harms Associated With Buprenorphine/Naloxone vs Methadone.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Spatial accessibility of substance use disorder treatment programs, compared with other health care facilities, in New York State, 2024.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- Considering possible drivers of the recent decrease in drug overdose deaths in Canada.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2025Article
- Sur la route des surdoses: un portrait canadien.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Safer Opioid Supply programs: Hydromorphone prescribing in Ontario as a harm reduction intervention to combat the drug poisoning crisis.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
57 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsThe province of British Columbia (BC) Canada has experienced a rapid increase in illicit drug overdoses and deaths during the last 4 years, with a provincial emergency declared in April 2016. These deaths have been driven primarily by the introduction of synthetic opioids into the illicit opioid supply. This study aimed to measure the combined impact of large-scale opioid overdose interventions implemented in BC between April 2016 and December 2017 on the number of deaths averted.
designWe expanded on the mathematical modelling methodology of our previous study to construct a Bayesian hierarchical latent Markov process model to estimate monthly overdose and overdose-death risk, along with the impact of interventions. SETTING AND CASES: Overdose events and overdose-related deaths in BC from January 2012 to December 2017.
interventionsThe interventions considered were take-home naloxone kits, overdose prevention/supervised consumption sites and opioid agonist therapy MEASUREMENTS: Counterfactual simulations were performed with the fitted model to estimate the number of death events averted for each intervention and in combination.
findingsBetween April 2016 and December 2017, BC observed 2177 overdose deaths (77% fentanyl-detected). During the same period, an estimated 3030 (2900-3240) death events were averted by all interventions combined. In isolation, 1580 (1480-1740) were averted by take-home naloxone, 230 (160-350) by overdose prevention services and 590 (510-720) were averted by opioid agonist therapy.
conclusionsA combined intervention approach has been effective in averting overdose deaths during British Columbia's opioid overdose crisis in the period since declaration of a public health emergency (April 2016-December 2017). However, the absolute numbers of overdose deaths have not changed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.