Opioid control laws linked to 10% drop in domestic violence cases

A brand new research led by the College of South Florida reveals opioid management insurance policies might provide broader public well being advantages, together with lowering situations of home violence. As policymakers proceed to grapple with the opioid epidemic, this research highlights the ability of analysis to tell efficient public coverage.

The analysis performed by USF doctoral pupil Minglu Solar and Andrei Barbos, affiliate professor of economics, underscores how opioid abuse could cause a strong ripple impact throughout society.

Printed in Well being Economics, the research analyzes the affect on the prevalence of home violence in Obligatory Entry Prescription Drug Monitoring Applications. These opioid management packages require well being care suppliers to seek the advice of a centralized database earlier than prescribing opioids, serving to stop sufferers from acquiring a number of prescriptions from a number of docs. Within the early 2010s, states started passing legal guidelines that mandated the usage of these databases after the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and different businesses stated they had been a key device to fight misuse of opioids.

“The staggered rollout of those packages throughout the nation provided a novel alternative to investigate their results over time and throughout completely different areas, which allowed us to isolate the results of those opioid management packages on the prevalence of home violence from different components, akin to financial cycles, concurrent coverage modifications or broader crime traits,” Barbos stated.

With information from the Nationwide Incident-Primarily based Reporting System, they compiled experiences from 31 states between 2007 and 2019 to create managed fashions for dynamic variables together with demographics, earnings, unemployment, well being standing, insurance coverage protection and overlapping rules, akin to legalized marijuana.

Solar and Barbos discovered that these opioid management packages not solely curb misuse however contributed to a ten% discount within the prevalence of straightforward assaults, which account for almost 75% of home violence incidents within the information. Easy assaults are typically outlined as an try and trigger bodily hurt to a different particular person that doesn’t contain a weapon or end in severe damage.

The impact was strongest in states with the best opioid prescription charges. Based on the CDC, southern states constantly exhibit larger charges—reinforcing the connection between opioid entry and home violence.

“Earlier public well being literature documented a correlation between opioid consumption and home violence, however correlation doesn’t indicate a causal relationship,” Barbos stated. “This text establishes a causal relationship and offers policymakers with proof of a further constructive spillover of opioid management insurance policies, which can even be related for the coverage design surrounding the present fentanyl disaster.”