Abstract :

The opioid epidemic is a recent global phenomenon affecting the United States and its affiliated territories, including Puerto Rico. There is a considerable gap in knowledge on how this epidemic has affected Puerto Rico. This gap can hinder the capabilities of healthcare workers to deliver appropriate treatment and preventative strategies to vulnerable groups. This descriptive study aims to describe opioid use and overdose in Puerto Rico during 2020-2022. This study analyzed data gathered by the Puerto Rico mental health and addiction subdivision of the Public Health Department (Administración de Servicios de Salud y Contra la Adicción; ASSMCA). Some of the noteworthy trends in this study include that most participants who suffered an overdose were overwhelmingly male and in the age group of 35-44 years old. Furthermore, most cases occurred in large metropolitan areas and happened in open spaces during the 12 pm-5:59 pm period. These findings emphasize the need for targeted interventions that consider the sociodemographic characteristics and geographical variations in drug use and overdose incidents in Puerto Rico.

---

Keywords :

Demographics, Naloxone, Opioids, Puerto Rico Overdose.

---

References :

1. Yeo Y, Johnson R, Heng C. The Public Health Approach to the Worsening Opioid Crisis in the United States Calls for Harm Reduction Strategies to Mitigate the Harm from Opioid Addiction and Overdose Deaths. Mil Med. 2022;187(9-10):244-247. doi:10.1093/milmed/usab485
2. Cano M, Gelpí-Acosta C. Drug overdose mortality among stateside Puerto Ricans: Evidence of a health disparity. Int J Drug Policy. 2021; 90:103079. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.103079
3. Lema A. UNIVERSIDAD SAN FRANCISCO de QUITO USFQ Colegio de Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades Factores de Protección Y Éxito Que Aportan a Corto Plazo a La Abstinencia En Pacientes Ecuatorianos Adictos a Opioides Proyecto de Investigación. Accessed September 05, 2023.
4. Abadie R, McLean K, Habecker P, Dombrowski K. Treatment trajectories and barriers in opioid agonist therapy for people who inject drugs in rural Puerto Rico. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2021; 127:108347. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108347
5. Shover CL, Falasinnu TO, Dwyer CL, et al. Steep increases in fentanyl-related mortality west of the Mississippi River: Recent evidence from county and state surveillance. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2020; 216:108314. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108314
6. Gelpí-Acosta C, Rodríguez-Díaz CE, Aponte-Meléndez Y, Abadie R. Puerto Rican Syndemics: Opiates, Overdoses, HIV, and the Hepatitis C Virus in a Context of Ongoing Crises. Am J Public Health. 2020;110(2):176-177. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2019.305487
7. Cabrera FF, Gamarra ER, Garcia TE, Littlejohn AD, Chinga PA, Pimentel-Morillo LD, Tirado JR, Chung DY, Pande LJ, McCall KL, Nichols SD, Piper BJ. Opioid distribution trends (2006-2017) in the U.S. Territories. PeerJ. 2019 Jan 15;7: e6272. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6272. PMID: 30671308; PMCID: PMC6338096.
8. Seedat S, Scott KM, Angermeyer MC, et al. Cross-national associations between gender and mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(7):785-795. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.36
9. Fujita-Imazu S, Xie J, Dhungel B, et al. Evolving trends in drug overdose mortality in the USA from 2000 to 2020: an age-period-cohort analysis. EClinicalMedicine. 2023;61:102079. Published 2023 Jul 6. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102079
10. Mack KA, Jones CM, Ballesteros MF. Illicit Drug Use, Illicit Drug Use Disorders, and Drug Overdose Deaths in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas-United States. Am J Transplant. 2017;17(12):3241-3252. doi:10.1111/ajt.14555
11. Yamamoto A, Needleman J, Gelberg L, Kominski G, Shoptaw S, Tsugawa Y. Association between homelessness and opioid overdose and opioid-related hospital admissions/emergency department visits. Soc Sci Med. 2019;242:112585. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112585
12. Kiyatkin EA. Respiratory depression and brain hypoxia induced by opioid drugs: Morphine, oxycodone, heroin, and fentanyl. Neuropharmacology. 2019;151:219-226. doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2019.02.008
13. Mueller SR, Walley AY, Calcaterra SL, Glanz JM, Binswanger IA. A Review of Opioid Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Prescribing: Implications for Translating Community Programming Into Clinical Practice. Subst Abus. 2015;36(2):240-253. doi:10.1080/08897077.2015.1010032
14. Park JN, Schneider KE, Fowler D, Sherman SG, Mojtabai R, Nestadt PS. Polysubstance Overdose Deaths in the Fentanyl Era: A Latent Class Analysis. J Addict Med. 2022;16(1):49-55. doi:10.1097/ADM.0000000000000823