{"id":33243,"date":"2024-11-01T16:12:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T16:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bnssghealthiertogether.org.uk\/?page_id=33243"},"modified":"2025-01-16T11:08:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T11:08:41","slug":"evaluating-the-public-health-impact-of-interventions-for-the-prevention-of-drug-related-deaths-in-the-population-in-scotland-ephesus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bnssghealthiertogether.org.uk\/ur\/integrated-care-board\/research-and-evidence\/our-research-portfolio\/nihr-funded-projects\/evaluating-the-public-health-impact-of-interventions-for-the-prevention-of-drug-related-deaths-in-the-population-in-scotland-ephesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluating the Public Health Impact of Interventions for the Prevention of Drug-related Deaths in the Population: in Scotland [EPHESUS]"},"content":{"rendered":"
Section titled module-1<\/span><\/a>
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Evaluating the Public Health Impact of Interventions for the Prevention of Drug-related Deaths in the Population: in Scotland [EPHESUS]<\/h1>\n

Funding<\/h2>\n

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research (PHR) Ref. NIHR 160569<\/p>\n

What is the Research Question?<\/h2>\n

How many drug-related deaths have existing interventions in Scotland prevented and how many more deaths could be prevented in future by introducing new interventions and changing\u00a0 the delivery of existing ones.<\/p>\n

What is the problem?<\/h2>\n

Drug-related deaths have doubled in the UK during the last decade. Scotland has the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe and is recognised by Scottish Government as a public health crisis.<\/p>\n

Opioid dependence (such as heroin) is treated with replacement drugs such as methadone or buprenorphine, this is called \u201copioid agonist treatment\u201d and can reduce the risk of drug-related deaths by over 50%.<\/p>\n

Implementing opioid agonist treatment in prisons can prevent people from dying in the first month after their release. Opioid agonist treatment is currently widely available in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Naloxone is\u00a0a medicine and antidote that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose and can prevent a fatal overdose if given to people who stop breathing after using heroin or other opioids.<\/p>\n

Scotland has a national programme and since 2011 has given out over 150,000 naloxone kits. However, opioid overdose deaths have continued to rise; more needs to be done to prevent drug-related deaths.<\/p>\n

What is the aim of the research?<\/h2>\n

The EPHESUS study has two key aims:<\/p>\n