Request For Abstracts – Research and Policy Insights About The Opioid Crisis

• Deadline for abstracts: December 2, 2024
• Preparation and formatting guidelines
• Submit abstracts via our online submission form
• Queries: [email protected]   
• Submission assistance: Submit_Help@healthaffairs.org 

Health Affairs is planning a theme issue on the opioid crisis in the United States. The September 2025 issue will feature approximately 20 peer-reviewed articles, including new empirical research, analyses, perspectives from community leaders, and policy proposals for addressing opioid misuse and addiction. We thank the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts, Dogwood Health Trust, Vital Strategies, and Kaiser Permanente for supporting the issue.

The opioid epidemic was declared a national public health emergency in 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the surge of overdoses, and in recent years more than 100,000 people have died from drug overdoses. Most overdose deaths involve opioids. Millions more people actively use opioids and could benefit from harm reduction and treatment services. While provisional CDC data show a decline in the second half of 2023, overdose deaths remain high relative to pre-pandemic levels, particularly in American Indian/Alaska Native and Black communities.

Causes of the opioid epidemic are manifold. Overprescribing by medical providers due, in part, to misleading marketing and sales of opioids, the challenges of finding alternative medications for chronic pain, unequal access to overdose prevention and addiction treatment services, and the proliferation of synthetic opioids like fentanyl have all contributed to the complex nature of the opioid crisis. Billions of dollars have been invested with bipartisan support to address these issues and develop robust interventions and policy. Now is the time to study these responses to ensure we are headed in the right direction. 

For this issue, we are interested in publishing work that will enhance the national dialogue around opioid use disorders, signal the importance of continued research, and provide a compendium of articles highlighting evidence-based strategies, best practices, and lessons learned in the US, including in those communities most affected by the opioid crisis. This work will also elevate the lived and living experiences of people affected by opioid use. Additionally, with the opioid settlement funds representing a major source of potential spending and as state and local organizations continue to receive federal grants to support new and ongoing programs, we will examine what has worked and what holds promise. We will focus on policy strategies and research that models the impact of interventions on the opioid epidemic across several interrelated domains, including prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support.

REQUEST FOR ABSTRACTS 

We invite all interested authors to submit abstracts for consideration for this issue. Editors will review the abstracts and, for those that best fit our vision and goals for the issue, invite authors to submit full papers for consideration.

In order to be considered, abstracts must be submitted no later than 11:59 PM Eastern time (U.S.), December 2, 2024. We regret that we will not be able to consider any abstracts submitted after that date. Abstracts must be submitted via our abstract submission portal—abstracts submitted via other channels will not be considered.

We primarily seek papers presenting empirical evidence and analyses (original research and systematic reviews) that contribute to our knowledge base. We will also consider a small number of well-supported and well-argued perspectives, commentaries, and policy insight papers, as well as Narrative Matters essays, art, poetry, interactive graphics, and multimedia components to supplement the empirical work and provide context. Papers should have a strong policy orientation, and we will put a premium on work that supports future planning and decision-making.

We encourage diverse author groups and papers that represent cross-disciplinary efforts that bridge health and non-health sectors. We also welcome contributions that use a variety of methods, including qualitative work, case studies, ethnographic studies, and community-based participatory research. In addition, we welcome submissions from early-career faculty members and non-academic community members, including people with lived experience of the issues that this volume will cover. For authors unfamiliar with the journal, please see our information for authors. 

Topics and areas of interest include:

Framing Topics and Cross-Cutting Issues

• Structural determinants and social conditions that contribute to opioid misuse
• Approaches that address racial equity among groups experiencing disproportionate increases in overdoses and in communities affected by discriminatory policies
• Allocation of state opioid settlement funds, federal and state funding grants, and other fiscal resources
• Improving data collection systems and measurement to inform services and policy change
• Co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (SUD)
• Engaging people with lived experience in research and practice
• Aligning systems and payment policies with evidence-based care
• Workforce needs and interprofessional collaboration across the continuum of care
• Reducing stigma associated with opioid use
• Changes in the opioid drug supply and the demography of the epidemic

Prevention

• Evidence-based prevention strategies that address multiple risk factors
• Opioid prescribing and alternative pain management strategies
• Family, school, and community-based prevention programs
• Strategies to reduce supply and exposure to opioids, including drug interdiction
• Training and education for providers and clinicians
• Economic costs and outcomes of prevention programs
• OUD screening in health care and clinical settings
• Innovative ways to scale and sustain primary prevention 

Harm Reduction

• Reducing the stigma and increasing the acceptability of harm reduction practices
• Availability and effectiveness of drug checking programs, naloxone, syringe services, safe consumption facilities, fentanyl test strips, overdose detection technology, safer supply programs, etc.
• Harm reduction by setting, e.g., families, schools, clinics, community spaces, pharmacies
• Integrating harm reduction with other systems, e.g., EMS, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, transitional housing/housing support programs 
• Funding and delivery of harm reduction services and supplies
• Preventing HIV, hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases among people who use drugs
• Pharmacy-based availability and uptake of over-the-counter naloxone
• International evidence that can inform newer harm reduction and treatment models in the US

Treatment

• Expanding access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD)
• Improving the treatment of comorbid mental health and non-opioid substance use disorders 
• Physician-pharmacist collaborative practice models for providing MOUD
• Models for improving access to methadone treatment
• Telehealth flexibilities, e.g., coverage, delivery, and payment
• Integrating and co-locating addiction treatment services
• Expanding access to MOUD in jails and prisons and lessons learned from Medicaid Reentry Section 1115 initiatives
• Provider- and systems-level barriers to providing MOUD
• Legal authorities to expand and regulate treatment, including methadone
• Medicaid and Medicare coverage and utilization management policies
• Policy issues related to parity, coverage gaps/network adequacy, and quality measures for effective treatment

Recovery

• Best practices for building recovery ecosystems and recovery-oriented systems of care
• Using Section 1115 Medicaid waivers to support recovery efforts
• Engaging people with lived/living experience with OUD
• Linking care and services for individuals in recovery, e.g., food access, housing support, employment training, health care
• Chronic disease management during recovery

Perinatal and Maternal Health

• Prenatal opioid exposure and peripartum screening for OUD
• MOUD treatment for pregnant and parenting people
• Prevention programs for reproductive age people
• Perinatal and postpartum opioid use
• Lessons learned from the CMS Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) Model

Family Systems and Social Networks

• Income supports to reduce the economic precarity of people who use opioids
• Engaging family, friends, and broader social networks in supporting persons with OUD
• Adverse childhood experiences and intergenerational substance use
• Community- and faith-based interventions and partnerships
• Trauma-informed care and mental health for families and children impacted by OUD
• Age-friendly systems of care for older adults with OUD

Equity and Marginalized Communities

• Residential segregation and access to treatment and recovery
• Prioritizing highly impacted racial and ethnic communities, e.g., Black, Latino, Indigenous, AI/AN
• Opioid use among older adults, adolescents, immigrants, veterans, persons with disabilities, incarcerated people, and people experiencing housing instability
• Unique OUD-related challenges for urban and rural communities
• Culturally centered treatment options for OUD

Legal and Policy

• Analysis of policies and regulations related to opioids, e.g., Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act
• Policy and legal issues related to opioid settlement funds, including spending priorities
• Impact of state laws on substance use and other health outcomes, e.g., paraphernalia laws, deflection model laws, child welfare and mandatory reporting laws
• Prescription drug monitoring programs
• Policy approaches used by law enforcement and public health officials to reduce overdose and drug-related harm
• Monitoring compliance with federal laws and regulations, including legal rights to obtain MOUD
• Addressing discriminatory practices against people who actively use drugs and people in recovery

The list above is not exhaustive. We are interested in alternative ways to think about content for the issue, additional topics, and cross-cutting themes. We are also interested in ideas about perspectives and commentaries to feature in the issue, journalistic pieces, and Narrative Matters topics.

TIMETABLE