Pitt Researcher Uses Hospitalization Data to Determine Causes of Substance Abuse
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By: Madison Brunner
Dr. Christina Mair, assistant professor of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, discusses how she plans to use hospitalization data from the last 15 years to research rates of abuse, overdose and dependence. The data will help her locate one high-risk region within two hours of Pitt’s campus, where she will conduct further research to get a full view of the problem from both the user and treatment perspective.
Western Pennsylvania is in the midst of a drug overdose epidemic, prompting Pitt Public Health to create a pilot grant project that funds several studies exploring different aspects of the problem.
This post is part of a blog series entitled “The Opioid Epidemic,” a collaboration between UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences highlighting the doctors, researchers and nurses making significant efforts to reduce diversion and misuse of prescription opioids. For more information about the series or resources to help with drug addiction, click here.
