COVID-19 Pandemic May Shed Light on Better Treatments for Substance Use Disorder
Interventions like telemedicine and virtual support groups have exploded in response to social distancing. Now researchers can fully measure how well these interventions work.
Research about how the COVID-19 pandemic affects people with substance use disorder (SUD) can inform strategies for providing treatment and social support in a post-pandemic world, said Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in a presentation at the virtual APA Spring Highlights Meeting in April.
Volkow said that the pandemic has given researchers a chance to study how telemedicine, virtual support meetings, and take-home medications for opioid use disorder (OUD)—all measures that have increased because of social distancing—can affect outcomes in people with SUD.
Author: Terri D’Arrigo
Published online: June 10, 2020