ArticleBMJ open2021
Rates of opioid agonist treatment prescribing in provincial prisons in Ontario, Canada, 2015-2018: a repeated cross-sectional analysis.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Opioid use disorder in custodial settings: Continuity of opioid agonist therapy at a critical clinical inflection point.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2026Article
- The health status of incarcerated people in Canada: a narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Overall and substance use-specific healthcare utilization among individuals with and without criminal justice involvement in Ontario, Canada.International journal of prison health · 2025Article
- The State of Mental Health Services for Incarcerated Adults in Ontario: A Scoping Review.International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology · 2025Article
- Article
- Opioid toxicity deaths in Indigenous people who experienced incarceration in Ontario, Canada 2015-2020: a whole population retrospective cohort study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2025Article
- The burden of drug overdose deaths among correctional populations: implications for interventions.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2024Article
- Normalizing fentanyl: interpreting the perceived 'risk' of correctional officer work.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- Article
- Opioid agonist treatment take-home doses ('carries'): Are current guidelines resulting in low treatment coverage among high-risk populations in Canada and the USA?Harm reduction journal · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo describe opioid agonist treatment prescribing rates in provincial prisons and compare with community prescribing rates.
designWe used quarterly, cross-sectional data on the number and proportion of people prescribed opioid agonist treatment in prison populations. Trends were compared with Ontario surveillance data from prescribers, reported on a monthly basis.
settingProvincial prisons and general population in Ontario, Canada between 2015 and 2018.
participantsAdults incarcerated in provincial prisons and people ages 15 years and older in Ontario. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Opioid agonist treatment prescribing prevalence, defined as treatment with methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone.
resultsIn prison, 6.9%-8.4% of people were prescribed methadone; 0.8% to 4.8% buprenorphine/naloxone; and 8.2% to 13.2% either treatment over the study period. Between 2015 and 2018, methadone prescribing prevalence did not substantially change in prisons or in the general population. The prevalence rate of buprenorphine/naloxone prescribing increased in prisons by 1.70 times per year (95% CI 1.47 to 1.96), which was significantly higher than the increase in community prescribing: 1.20 (95% CI 1.19 to 1.21). Buprenorphine/naloxone prescribing prevalence was significantly different across prisons.
conclusionsThe increase in opioid agonist treatment prescribing between 2015 and 2018 in provincial prisons shows that efforts to scale up access to treatment in the context of the opioid overdose crisis have included people who experience incarceration in Ontario. Further work is needed to understand unmet need for treatment and treatment impacts.
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.