The United States faces several ongoing public health issues including the opioid epidemic. This article describes a new model aimed at providing a framework that incorporates the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to develop pharmacy student leaders through education, experiences, and development of critical skills. This…

Opioid addiction is a widespread problem that social workers will undoubtedly face in practice. Curricular infusion is an approach that has gained recognition in social work education for integrating critical, contemporary topics into courses. This paper details a project that infused opioid addiction in baccalaureate of social work (BSW) courses,…

Objective: This study assessed undergraduate unhealthy substance use, levels of knowledge about opioid pharmacology, unhealthy use and safety, and students' perceptions about their level of knowledge. Participants: Participants were undergraduate students at a large, private university in the Northeast. Methods: This study employed a…

Despite the elevation of the opioid crisis in the U.S. to the level of a nationwide public health emergency in 2017, the number of opioid-involved overdose deaths has continued to rise. The impact of the opioid epidemic extends well beyond the tragedy of fatal overdose. Nonfatal overdose can result in brain injury and permanent disability, and…

Misuse of prescription opioids has substantially increased in the past decade among the general population, including among university students. Relative to the literature concerning opioid misuse among the general population, little information is available regarding the college student population. Objective: The purpose of the present study was…

Objective: The current study examined the mediating role of distress tolerance on the association between pain-related disability and addiction to opioids, past-month opioid use, and risky opioid use among an ethno-racially diverse sample of young adults with current pain. Methods: Participants were 141 undergraduate college students (78.7%…

Objective: We examine role of ACEs and pathways to risk of opioid misuse among young adults. Participants and Methods: A cross-sectional survey of validated measures of ACEs, risk of opioid misuse, and health conditions with a sample of 1,402 students from a large public university followed by multivariate logistic regression and pathway analysis.…

Objective: To examine undergraduate college students' attitudes toward 12-step support group utilization for opioid use disorder (OUD) and associations with previous experience with medications for OUD (MOUD). Participants: A convenience sample of undergraduate students at two major U.S. universities during Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. Method: A…

Drug overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, a crisis that is driven by an increasingly potent supply of illicit opioids. College-aged adults are more likely than any other age group to engage in opioid misuse. Naloxone, the antidote for an opioid overdose, can save the life of an opioid overdose victim if it is…

This study examines a student-created "pop-up museum" about the opioid epidemic that was part of a project-based service-learning (PBSL) experience in a college course. A survey of student perceptions of the learning experience, a course evaluation, and a survey of museum visitors' perceptions of their experiences with the museum…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is an ongoing research program conducted at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research under a series of investigator-initiated, competing research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse beginning in 1975. The integrated MTF study includes annual surveys of nationally representative samples of…

Objective: College students' prescription stimulant and opioid misuse (PSM and POM) share psychosocial risks with other substance use. We sought to extend a prior study of these issues. Methods: National College Health Assessment (2015-2016) participants ages 18-24 years (n = 79,336) reporting 12-month PSM (defined as use of a drug not prescribed…

Objective: Compared to nonaffiliated students, Greek students engage in higher rates of prescription drug abuse (PDA). We examined PDA among Greek students compared to non-Greek students, and whether PDA in high school predicted joining a Greek organization in college. Participants: From November to December 2014, 509 undergraduate students at a…

The meta-analysis, that included 75 studies, examined the relationship between illegal drug consumption, on the one hand, and student academic and behavioral outcomes, on the other, for the middle school to college grade levels. The meta-analysis first (research question #1) addressed whether there is a statistically significant relationship…

In October 2017, the President and acting U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary determined that a public health emergency exists nationwide. Opioids can help in the management of certain types of pain, but they pose serious health, financial, and social consequences when misused. Schools, school districts, and institutions…