The Opioid Epidemic in COVID 19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: COVID 19 pandemic has caused additional challenges and insurmountable psychosocial impact for patients with opioid use disorders. The particularly challenging group include those seeking treatment with medication for OUD patients. This article discusses the bi-directional effects between opioid use disorder patients and covid 19. Method: PubMed and Google Scholar were searched with the following keywords- “COVID-19”, “opioid use disorder”, “pandemic”, “behavioural addiction”, “opioid”, “opioid agonist therapy”. Results: People with opioid use disorder are at a heightened risk of acquiring and increased severity of COVID 19 infections due to compromised immunity, homelessness or housing instability, lockdown and social distancing leading to failure of rehabilitation strategies, mucociliary dysfunction, cardiopulmonary morbidities, etc. Conclusion: COVID 19 pandemic and opioid use disorder is on the verge of the collision so every effort must be taken by the government and health care sector to prevent a big wave of opioid overdose and relapse in our community.