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Safeguarding the health of residential addiction treatment center workers could reduce worker turnover (and help their patients have better outcomes!)

Sign that says "Addiction Recovery"

In response to the opioid epidemic and the additional strains of the pandemic, a study published in Social Science & Medicine parses out which socio-contextual factors were found to be affecting provider health and turnover. Authors include HCPDS Director Lisa Berkman, faculty member Laura Kubzansky and former postdoctoral fellow Erika Sabbath. Photo: Pix4free.org

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Is there a link between opioid overdose mortality rates and automobile assembly plant closures in the U.S.?

Assembly workers work on a Chrysler car at a Michigan plant.

Researchers affiliated with the Harvard Pop Center have published a study that focuses on counties with a large share of the population employed in the manufacturing sector, finding a link between automobile assembly plant closures and deaths by opioid overdose among working-age adults. Study authors include faculty member (and former Harvard RWJF scholar) Alexander Tsai, MD, PhD, and Rourke O’Brien, PhD, also a former Harvard RWJF scholar. Other study authors…

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Harvard Public Health magazine features findings of Harvard Pop Center researchers in ℞ for an Epidemic

Cover of Harvard Public Health Magazine

The current issue (Fall 2019) of Harvard Public Health magazine features research by Jack Cordes (then a graduate student), Lyndsey Rolheiser (then a  Harvard Pop Center post-doc fellow), and our faculty member Subu Subramanian that “made a splash with the media.” ℞ for an Epidemic

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Will the lowered first-time opioid prescription rate help to reduce overdose mortality rate?

headshot of Nicole Maestas

Nicole Maestas, PhD, is lead author on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that reports some potentially hopeful news regarding the national opioid crisis: the first-time prescription rate is lower, as is the rate for prescriptions lasting longer than three days. Learn more in this piece on PBS NewsHour.

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Alabama Senator cites findings by Harvard Pop Center researchers as he introduces opioid education bill

image of pills coming out of pill bottle

Alabama Senator Andrew Jones (R-Centre) put forward an opioid education bill — the Patient Opiate Risk Education Act — that would require medical practitioners to educate patients about the addiction and health risks involved with prescription opioids. Senator Jones cited the findings of a recent study by recent Harvard Pop Center postdoctoral researcher Lyndsey Rolheiser, PhD, faculty member Subu Subramanian, PhD, and a colleague that identified his congressional district as…

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