An Epidemic in the Midst of a Pandemic: Opioid Use Disorder and COVID-19

G Caleb Alexander; Kenneth B Stoller; Rebecca L Haffajee; Brendan Saloner

doi:10.7326/M20-1141

An Epidemic in the Midst of a Pandemic: Opioid Use Disorder and COVID-19

Ann Intern Med. 2020 Jul 7;173(1):57-58. doi: 10.7326/M20-1141. Epub 2020 Apr 2.

Authors

G Caleb Alexander¹, Kenneth B Stoller², Rebecca L Haffajee³, Brendan Saloner⁴

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (G.C.A.).
² Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (K.B.S.).
³ RAND Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts, and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (R.L.H.).
⁴ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland (B.S.).

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a particularly grave risk to the millions of Americans with opioid use disorder, who—already vulnerable and marginalized—are heavily dependent on face-to-face health care delivery. These authors propose rapid and coordinated action on the part of clinicians and policymakers to mitigate risks of disrupted care for these patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Food; Health care; Health care providers; Medicare; Opioid addiction; Opioids; Patients; Safety; Telemedicine.

Publication types

Editorial

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus*
COVID-19
Coronavirus Infections / complications
Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology*
Coronavirus Infections / transmission
Disease Transmission, Infectious / prevention & control*
Humans
Incidence
Opioid-Related Disorders / complications*
Opioid-Related Disorders / epidemiology
Opioid-Related Disorders / therapy
Pandemics*
Pneumonia, Viral / complications
Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology*
Pneumonia, Viral / transmission
SARS-CoV-2
Telemedicine / methods*