Do Local Synthetic Opioid Overdose Deaths Affect Provider Prescribing of Buprenorphine?
We thank Brad Stein, Adam Gordon, Harold Pollack, Alberto Ortega, Rosanna Smart, and Christine Durrance for insightful feedback on this project, as well as comments from attendees at the Spring 2026 RAND OPTIC Summit and the 2026 ASHEcon Annual Conference. Access to IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription (LRx) data was provided to the study team through a project supported by the Preparedness and Treatment Equity Coalition and Pew Trusts; we thank IQVIA for graciously providing LRx data for this project, and Pew Trusts for supporting this project. Research time for Aalsma and Siegal was supported by the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute on Drug Abuse Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network cooperative through award number UG1DA050070. Research time for Crystal was supported by NIH awards 5R01DA057568, 1R01DA058664, and 1UM1TR004789. Research time for Miles was supported by NIH K99DA057372 and R00DA057372. Research time for Pacula was supported by NIH award to OPTIC (2P50DA046351). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of any funding agencies. The funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Dr. Samples has received consulting fees from The Pew Charitable Trusts outside this work.