National Institutes of Health, 3WFN RM 08C54 MSC 6020, 301 North Stonestreet Ave, Bethesda MD 20892, USA,
J Ment Health Policy Econ. 2021 Dec 1;24(4):125-135.
The COVID-19 pandemic likely had and will continue to have severe implications for those who use addictive substances, have substance use disorders, or use substance use related health care services. Policy and services research, particularly health economics research, can illuminate these effects on individuals, uncover the effects of the rapidly imposed changes in policy on how services were delivered, promote efficient and effective provision of services, and inform responses to future pandemics.
To identify potential substance use related effects of COVID-19 and pandemic mitigation policies, highlight themes in current research, and suggest areas for further high-quality policy and services research, with an emphasis on health economics research.
Review of recent published commentaries, government documents, and initial research findings to describe potential impacts, and review of current COVID-19 related research grants funded by the United States National Institutes of Health to identify themes.
Potential impacts include increased risk for and severity of COVID-19 illness among those who use substances, mitigation measures causing increased substance use and development of use disorders, and fundamental changes in the way treatment is provided. Current research may provide initial findings that may be useful in generating hypotheses for future rigorous research.
Research on these and other areas could enhance our fundamental understanding of the needs of individuals who use substances and how to best address those needs in the most efficient, effective way. Though this brief review highlights some areas of potential interest, its focus is mainly on treatment and on the United States context. Research on additional services and contexts likely could inform advances as well.
Health care providers rapidly and under considerable stress made needed changes that likely mitigated SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Rigorous research can help determine what worked best and for whom, what could be kept, and what might better be discarded.
Research on the effects of mitigation policies may inform the development of policies to reduce negative effects when addressing future pandemics, whether to permanently allow at least some substance use treatment flexibilities, and whether research on other restrictive policies might lead to improvement.
This extraordinary event brought into sharp relief the numerous vulnerabilities of those who use substances and those with substance use disorders while also leading to vast changes in the services that address them. Rigorous research into those effects could result in significant improvements in policy and practice.
COVID-19 大流行可能对那些使用成瘾物质、患有物质使用障碍或使用与物质使用相关的卫生保健服务的人产生严重影响。政策和服务研究，特别是健康经济学研究，可以阐明这些对个人的影响，揭示政策的快速变化对服务提供方式的影响，促进服务的有效和高效提供，并为应对未来的大流行提供信息。
确定 COVID-19 和大流行缓解政策的潜在物质使用相关影响，突出当前研究中的主题，并提出进一步进行高质量政策和服务研究的领域，重点是健康经济学研究。
审查最近发表的评论、政府文件和初步研究结果，以描述潜在影响，并审查美国国立卫生研究院资助的与 COVID-19 相关的当前研究资助，以确定主题。
潜在影响包括使用物质的人感染 COVID-19 的风险增加和严重程度增加、缓解措施导致物质使用增加和使用障碍的发展，以及治疗方式的根本变化。当前的研究可能提供初步发现，这些发现可能有助于为未来的严格研究生成假设。
对这些和其他领域的研究可以增强我们对使用物质的个人需求的基本认识，以及以最有效、最有效的方式满足这些需求的方法。尽管这篇简短的综述强调了一些潜在的感兴趣的领域，但它的重点主要是治疗和美国的情况。对其他服务和背景的研究也可能会推动进展。
医疗保健提供者在相当大的压力下迅速做出了必要的改变，这可能减轻了 SARS-CoV-2 的传播。严格的研究可以帮助确定哪些措施效果最好，哪些措施最适合谁，哪些措施可以保留，哪些措施可以更好地放弃。
对缓解政策影响的研究可能为制定政策提供信息，以减少未来大流行时的负面影响，无论是永久性地允许至少一些物质使用治疗灵活性，还是对其他限制性政策的研究是否可能导致改进。
这一特殊事件突显了那些使用物质和患有物质使用障碍的人的许多脆弱性，同时也导致了针对他们的服务发生了巨大变化。对这些影响的严格研究可能会导致政策和实践的重大改进。
