Conceptualizing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with opioid use disorder: an application of the social ecological model.
Addict Sci Clin Pract
; 16(1): 4, 2021 01 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1060377
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unparalleled societal disruption with wide ranging effects on individual liberties, the economy, and physical and mental health. While no social strata or population has been spared, the pandemic has posed unique and poorly characterized challenges for individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). Given the pandemic's broad effects, it is helpful to organize the risks posed to specific populations using theoretical models. These models can guide scientific inquiry, interventions, and public policy. Models also provide a visual image of the interplay of individual-, network-, community-, structural-, and pandemic-level factors that can lead to increased risks of infection and associated morbidity and mortality for individuals and populations. Such models are not unidirectional, in that actions of individuals, networks, communities and structural changes can also affect overall disease incidence and prevalence. In this commentary, we describe how the social ecological model (SEM) may be applied to describe the theoretical effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). This model can provide a necessary framework to systematically guide time-sensitive research and implementation of individual-, community-, and policy-level interventions to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with OUD.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Environment
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
/
Models, Psychological
/
Opioid-Related Disorders
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Addict Sci Clin Pract
Journal subject:
Substance-Related Disorders
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S13722-020-00210-w
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