Reuters (10/1, Carroll) reports, “Drive times to opioid treatment programs may be as much as six times longer in rural U.S. counties compared to urban ones, researchers” found. In their study that examined “drive times to opioid treatment programs in urban and rural counties in the five states with the highest rates of opioid-related deaths,” investigators “found that it could take nearly 50 minutes to get a clinic that could dispense methadone, according to a research letter published” online Oct. 1 in JAMA. HealthDay (10/1, Reinberg) also covers the study.
Related Links:
— “Long drive times in rural areas may be a barrier to opioid addiction treatment, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, October 1, 2019