Advanced Search
Current and Breaking News for Professionals, Consumers and Media




News Author: Staff Editor Last Updated: Sep 7, 2017 - 10:06:33 PM



Transforming Through Behavior Change

By Staff Editor
Nov 18, 2016 - 9:05:55 AM



Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List icon Sign up for our Ezine
For Email Marketing you can trust


Email this article
 Printer friendly page

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — At age 16, Libby injured herself on the soccer field. Three surgeries and innumerable physical therapy sessions later, the injury healed. Libby left behind her crutches and bandages.

But a lingering shadow from her injury remained: an addiction to opioid pain pills.

Though this particular tale is fictitious, the reality is that, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2012 it was estimated that 2.1 million people in the United States suffered from substance-use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers, and an estimated 467,000 were addicted to heroin. A 2015 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that number is trending up.

This growing development has grabbed the attention of the health care industry, the media and lawmakers. It has also caught the attention of researchers in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development, and is one example of how an emergent body of research in the college is focusing on behavior change as a way to improve the health of people and the environment.

Max Crowley, assistant professor of human development and family studies, focuses on how to invest in healthy human development. He investigates the fiscal benefits of those investments and explores how behavior change could impact opioid misuse.

Max Crowley

“Our ongoing work is helping to keep the focus on evidence-based strategies for reducing opioid misuse.” — Max Crowley

Image: Kevin Sliman

 

“When the opioid epidemic began, there were behavioral prevention strategies that could prevent common types of substance abuse such as smoking or drinking, but there wasn’t much evidence out there about whether universal strategies could prevent prescription opioid misuse and nothing about whether these strategies could be cost-effective,” Crowley said.

Common strategies concentrated on reducing the supply of opioids, such as prescription monitoring systems, but few focused on how to reduce demand by preventing misuse.

“As a result of this need, we evaluated how four different behavioral prevention strategies could be used to prevent prescription opioid misuse and save public resources,” said Crowley.

Researchers identified an addiction-prevention strategy, known as Life Skills Training, that costs less than $650 per person.

“This is less than many of the supply-side strategies being used and doesn’t restrict access to vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, veterans or those with chronic pain,” said Crowley. “This can translate into more than $2,900 saved per person who receives this program — or a return of more than $4 for every dollar spent.”

According to Crowley, it is clear that behavioral interventions reduce people’s likelihood of misusing drugs and offer a way to save lives without severely restricting access to a crucial pain-management tool.

In the spring of 2016, this research started to impact Capitol Hill. Crowley and his colleagues, with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and National Prevention Science Coalition, launched a pilot program for building collaborations between scientists and policy makers to translate behavioral-prevention strategies into evidence-based policy.

Congressional offices started to request help from Crowley and his colleagues, seeking to understand the science behind prevention. These have included requests for legislative briefings, support for hearings, policy briefs and assistance crafting legislative language that reflects the current scientific understanding. Representatives from more than 40 congressional offices attended a June 2016 briefing on preventing opioid abuse held by Crowley and his team.

 

“In general, we have found a great level of demand among the offices we work with, for not only education about the science, but as an active partner to help them use research to develop evidence-based policy,” Crowley said.

Sex and alcohol use among college students is another area that could be impacted by the science of behavior change.

Kari Kugler, a research associate for The Methodology Center, specializes in epidemiology and works to develop programs that have an impact on public health, such as obesity, cardiovascular risk and drug use.

###

For advertising/promo contact Mike McCurdy at [email protected] or call him at 877-634-9180



Top of Page

HealthNewsDigest.com

News
Latest Headlines


+ Adolescent Females Were Especially Vulnerable to Mental Health Impact of Pandemic-Related School Closings
+ Alarming Prevalence of Smell, Taste Loss During COVID’s Delta Surge
+ Correct Posture in Real Time with the Help of Machine Learning
+ Osteoporosis Facts
+ Get a COVID-19 Booster
+ What’s In The Water?
+ Harmless Cells Turn Into Ruthless Trained Killers
+ Even in the Operating Room, Team Chemistry Matters
+ Stress Also Among Wild Life
+ Cortical Connectivity Close-Up



Contact Us | Job Listings | Help | Site Map | About Us
Advertising Information | HND Press Release | Submit Information | Disclaimer

Site hosted by Sanchez Productions