Extramural Research

NCIPC-supported research is providing information and tools to improve the safety and effectiveness of opioid prescribing and pain management.

• Oregon State University researchers looked at opioid prescribing in the Oregon state Medicaid program and found the top 10% of patients and top 10% of prescribers received or prescribed, respectively, over 80% of the opioid volume in 2013, signaling where to focus intervention efforts.¹
• Researchers at Johns Hopkins University showed the value and effectiveness of pain clinic regulation in reducing the number of opioid prescriptions written by providers engaged in high-risk prescribing.²
• A team at University of Pittsburgh outlined patient and provider characteristics and patterns of opioid use that increase risk for overdose in Medicaid populations.³
• Carolinas Medical Center researchers developed an alert in an electronic health record to notify providers about the risk of opioid prescription for patients with factors that signal concern about potential misuse or opioid use disorder.⁴

Footnotes

1. Oregon State University; Daniel M. Hartung Pharm. D.; Kim et al, The Concentration of Opioid Prescriptions by Providers and Among Patients in the Oregon Medicaid Program; Psychiatric Services, (2016) 67 397-404.
2. Johns Hopkins University; G. Caleb Alexander, M.D.; Chang et al. Impact of prescription drug monitoring programs and pill mill laws on high-risk opioid prescribers: A comparative interrupted time series analysis; Drug and Alcohol Dependence, (2016) 165 1-8.
3. University of Pittsburgh; Gerald Cochran Ph.D.; Gordon et al, Patterns and Quality of Buprenorphine Opioid Agonist Treatment in a Large Medicaid Program; J of Addiction Medicine, (2015) 9 470-477.
4. Carolinas Medical Center; Rachel Seymour Ph.D.; Seymour et al, Prescription Reporting with Immediate Medication Utilization Mapping (PRIMUM): Development of an Alert to Improve Narcotic Prescribing; BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, (2016) 16:111.

Child abuse and neglect are major public health problems in the US. In 2015, an estimated 683,000 children were identified by child protective services as victims of abuse or neglect, and approximately 1,670 children died from abuse or neglect across the country. NCIPC is funding applied research to help build the evidence for what works to prevent child abuse and neglect.

For example, NCIPC has funded research to study the effects of an intervention to increase father engagement. That study found that fathers had a strong desire to be in their child’s lives, despite obstacles that blocked their ability to do so. Fathers were interested in learning how to be a better parent, and they wanted to be able to parent their children differently than they were parented by their own fathers.¹

NCIPC is also sponsoring research by Portland State University and the Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Harvard to study the impact of Early Head Start on child abuse and neglect, and research at the Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine to test brief parenting interventions that are relatively low-cost, low-resource intensive, and adaptable to larger and more universal target populations. This line of research could significantly reduce the number of children maltreated in this country and also contribute to a long-term reduction in a range of health problems later in life that have been associated with exposure to abuse, neglect and other adverse childhood experiences, including smoking, obesity, drug abuse, risky sexual behavior, mental health disorders, and heart disease.

Footnotes

1. Washington University; Patricia L. Kohl, PhD; Kristen D. Seay, MSW, PhD, Engaging African American Fathers in Behavioral Parent Training: To Adapt or Not Adapt; Best Pract Ment Health. 2015 Spring; 11(1): 54–68.