Literature Collection

AIMS: In England, psychological therapies provided in primary care are recommended as first-line treatment for people living with mild-to-moderate dementia experiencing depression or anxiety. It is known that people living with dementia experience more barriers to accessing therapy than people without dementia, but such inequalities in terms of rates of access to primary care services are yet to be characterised. METHODS: In this retrospective, observational study of linked electronic healthcare records, the national database of the National Health Service (NHS) Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression programme was used to compare pathways to accessing therapy between 6623 people living with dementia and 4 825 489 without dementia between 2012 and 2019. Outcomes included access to an assessment, to therapy and reasons for discharge. Primary analyses used a propensity-score matched cohort to compare outcomes. Exact matching was used for the NHS service entity. RESULTS: The prevalence of dementia in the study cohort was lower than the prevalence of dementia in a representative population, based on an estimation of prevalence in people with mild-to-moderate age over 35 (0.23% in our study vs 3.82% in previous research). Compared to people without dementia, people living with dementia were less likely to access an assessment (odds ratio [OR] = 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.55-0.65), to subsequently receive therapy (OR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.61-0.73) and more likely to be discharged because services were deemed not suitable before having an assessment (relative rate ratio [RRR] = 4.90; 95% CI: 4.20-5.72) and starting therapy (RRR = 2.74; 95% CI: 2.24-3.35). Female gender, social deprivation, Asian ethnicity and less common dementia subtypes (such as frontotemporal dementia) were also associated with poorer access rates and a higher likelihood of services being deemed not suitable. Involvement of care partners in the referral process was associated with better access rates. CONCLUSIONS: Pathways to accessing primary care psychological therapy services must be made more accessible for people living with dementia. Better access could be achieved by increasing referrer awareness and training for staff within services to promote access for people living with dementia (especially for groups under-represented in services), better understanding how to involve care partners in the process, as well as when specialist support might be more suited in secondary care. More granularity in the medical coding of rarer dementia diagnoses in electronic health records would also allow for better statistically powered research for these groups.

BACKGROUND: To determine how clinicians with a DATA waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic to emergency authorities, including use of telehealth to prescribe buprenorphine, the challenges faced by clinicians, and strategies employed by them to manage patients with OUD. METHODS: From June 23, 2020 to August 19, 2020, we conducted an electronic survey of U.S. DATA-waivered clinicians. Descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression were used for analysis. RESULTS: Among 10,238 respondents, 68 % were physicians, 25 % nursing-related providers, and 6% physician assistants; 28 % reported never prescribing or not prescribing in the 12 months prior to the survey. Among the 72 % of clinicians who reported past 12-month buprenorphine prescribing (i.e. active practitioners during the pandemic) 30 % reported their practice setting closed to in-person visits during COVID-19; 33 % reported remote prescribing to new patients without an in-person examination. The strongest predictors of remote buprenorphine prescribing to new patients were prescribing buprenorphine to larger numbers of patients in an average month in the past year and closure of the practice setting during the pandemic; previous experience with remote prescribing to established patients prior to COVID-19 also was a significant predictor. Among clinicians prescribing to new patients without an in-person examination, 5.5 % reported difficulties with buprenorphine induction, most commonly withdrawal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Telehealth practices and prescribing to new patients without an in-person examination were adopted by DATA-waivered clinicians during the first six months of COVID-19. Permanent adoption of these authorities may enable expanded access to buprenorphine treatment.

BACKGROUND: Pregnant women and their unborn children are often overlooked in the opioid crisis, despite increased rates of both maternal complications and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. Although medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are considered the gold standard for pregnant women, many either do not have access to or are not offered MOUD as an option. OBJECTIVES: To describe the characteristics of MOUD care models and assess the effectiveness of MOUD Care Models on initiation, adherence, and engagement in treatment for pregnant women with OUD. DATA SOURCES: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis protocol directed the process of this scoping review. A search for English, peer-reviewed, quantitative studies, published between 2012 and 2023 was conducted in eight scholarly databases. The Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal tools were used to assess study quality. CONCLUSIONS: The integrated care models included medication management, psychotherapy support, behavioral health care, and medical care management, with added focus on prenatal and postpartum care. Synthesis revealed that treatment engagement, medication adherence, breastfeeding rates, and postdelivery MOUD referrals were higher in integrated care models compared with nonintegrated care models. Pregnant women with OUD in integrated care models have better outcomes compared with those in nonintegrated care models. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Improvements in care models are necessary to tackle provider shortages, stigma, and financial, geographic, and technological barriers. Addressing these issues will enhance nurse practitioners' ability to provide comprehensive and accessible care to this vulnerable population.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Expanding access to medication-assisted treatment with buprenorphine is a cornerstone of the opioid crisis response, yet buprenorphine remains underutilized. Research has identified multiple barriers to prescribing buprenorphine. This study aimed to examine clinician characteristics, prescribing practices and barriers and incentives to prescribing buprenorphine among clinicians with a federal Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA) waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder treatment. DESIGN: Electronic survey of 4225 clinicians conducted between March and April 2018. SETTING: United States. PARTICIPANTS: Clinicians obtaining an initial federal DATA waiver or an increase in authorized patient limit to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder treatment in 2017. MEASUREMENTS: Descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression examined clinician characteristics, prescribing practices and primary barriers and incentives to prescribing buprenorphine or prescribing at or near the authorized patient limit. FINDINGS: Among respondents, 75.5% had prescribed buprenorphine since obtaining a DATA waiver; the mean (standard deviation) number of patients treated in the past month was 26.6 (40.3), and 13.1% of providers were prescribing at or near their patient limit in the past month. Lack of patient demand, cited by 19.4% of clinicians, was the most common primary barrier to prescribing buprenorphine or prescribing to the authorized patient limit, followed by time constraints in practice (14.6%) and insurance reimbursement, prior authorization or other insurance requirements (13.2%). Increased patient demand (22.2%), institutional support for buprenorphine treatment (12.5%) and increased reimbursement (12.2%) were the most endorsed primary incentives for buprenorphine prescribing. Multivariable logistic regression models identified multiple clinician characteristics associated with buprenorphine prescribing and prescribing at or near the authorized patient limit. CONCLUSIONS: US clinicians recently waivered to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder treatment appear to prescribe well below their patient limit, and many do not prescribe at all.