MetroHealth is using its syringe exchange program to study whether the use of fentanyl test strips’ affects a person's risk of overdose and death as part of a national study.
The study, which began in May and is funded by the National Institutes of Health, includes institutions throughout Ohio, Kentucky and New York.
The goal is to better understand how effective the strips are and how best to use them, said Ohio State University’s Janet Childerhose, who is helping to lead the study in the Buckeye State.
"Is this an evidence-based harm reduction tool that should be widely available? Is this something that is going to really help save lives? And how should we be using it?" Childerhose asked.
The research is important because fentanyl test strips are the only take-home test for a drug responsible for 81% of the overdoses in Ohio in 2020, she said. More than 5,000 people died of unintentional overdoses that year, Ohio Department of Health data show.
“This is really the only tool that is keeping some people alive," Childerhose said.
Focusing on fentanyl is important because it can be found throughout Northeast Ohio, said Stephanie Shorts, Metrohealth’s Project DAWN and syringe exchange coordinator.
"For the past several years now, pretty much our whole drug supply in our area is infiltrated with that," Shorts said. "It's just made the amount of overdoses and overdose deaths that much worse around our area."
Researchers at MetroHealth linked the use of the test strips to other changes in behavior that reduce a person's risk — even before the NIH study began in May, said Shorts.
When drug users use the test strips and find evidence of fentanyl they are likely to do other things to protect themselves, she said. That includes ending or reducing their drug use and making sure they have naloxone, a nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdoses, nearby.
“Last year, there was about an 83% positive behavior change if a person had a positive test strip,” Shorts said of participants in MetroHealth's syringe exchange program.
Shorts, who helps operate a five-day-a-week syringe exchange, one of only two in the region, and a harm reduction mobile unit at MetroHealth, said the goal is for 250 people to be enrolled in the NIH study across Ohio.
Researchers expect to release a final report in March 2024.
