ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2022
Illicit Substance Use and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States: A Scoping Review and Characterization of Research Evidence in Unprecedented Times.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Assessing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic impacts on the health of people who inject drugs using a novel data sharing model.AIDS (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Substance use and treatment utilization patterns of working-age American men who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Article
- Use of clinic- and community-based overdose prevention services by sex workers who use drugs: findings from a community-based cohort in Vancouver, Canada (2017-2024).Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Substance use and treatment utilization patterns of working-age American men who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Research square · 2026Article
- Deaths of despair before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative analysis of 27 European countries and the United States.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Changes in drug-use behaviors among people who use drugs with comorbid psychiatric disorders across the COVID-19 pandemic: a three-phase longitudinal cohort study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Trends of incident stimulant use disorder diagnoses before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia (2013-2024): a population-based study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Substance use and treatment utilization patterns of working-age American men who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) during the COVID-19 pandemic.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- County-Level COVID-19 Policy Comprehensiveness and Adult Behavioral Health during 2021 : County-Level COVID-19 Policy and Adult Behavioral Health.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2025Article
- Representative national survey on drug use during the COVID-19 stay-at-home order in the USA.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Alcohol-Induced & Drug-Induced Deaths in Hawai'i During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Hawai'i journal of health & social welfare · 2024Article
- Trends in Opioid Misuse Among Individuals Aged 12 to 21 Years in the US.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Mental Health Conditions- and Substance Use-Associated Emergency Department Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nevada, USA.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Multi-level influences on increased overdose risk behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic among people who use drugs in Rhode Island: a qualitative investigation.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Article
- "A Lot of Things Stopped with COVID": Screening Pregnant Patients for Opioid Use and Related Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Women's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's HealthArticle
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.
Funding
Abstract
We carried out a scoping review to characterize the primary quantitative evidence addressing changes in key individual/structural determinants of substance use risks and health outcomes over the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States (US). We systematically queried the LitCovid database for US-only studies without date restrictions (up to 6 August 2021). We extracted quantitative data from articles addressing changes in: (a) illicit substance use frequency/contexts/behaviors, (b) illicit drug market dynamics, (c) access to treatment and harm reduction services, and (d) illicit substance use-related health outcomes/harms. The majority of 37 selected articles were conducted within metropolitan locations and leveraged historical timeseries medical records data. Limited available evidence supported changes in frequency/behaviors/contexts of substance use. Few studies point to increases in fentanyl and reductions in heroin availability. Policy-driven interventions to lower drug use treatment thresholds conferred increased access within localized settings but did not seem to significantly prevent broader disruptions nationwide. Substance use-related emergency medical services' presentations and fatal overdose data showed a worsening situation. Improved study designs/data sources, backed by enhanced routine monitoring of illicit substance use trends, are needed to characterize substance use-related risks and inform effective responses during public health emergencies.
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.