Barbara Andraka-Christou
University of Central Florida, FL·Public Health & Epidemiology
Opioid use disorder (OUD), a life-threatening condition affecting about 7.6 million people in the U.S., can be treated with medications such as methadone and buprenorphine. These medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) cut death rates among patients by about half.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Social Science
- Topics
opioid use disorder
buprenorphine
methadone
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Build a public, year-by-year database of state statutes, regulations and executive orders (2014–2024) meant to promote medications for opioid use disorder after ED overdose visits, using expert-guided searches of NexisUni legal software.
- Describe national and state trends in starting and staying on MOUD after ED overdose visits, using 2014–2024 Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurance claims, and identify patient, provider and geographic factors linked to treatment.
- Test whether state ED MOUD laws change rates of treatment starts, 180-day retention and 30-day repeat overdose, using difference-in-differences analysis that compares states before and after the laws take effect.
- Assess whether the effects of ED MOUD laws differ by specific legal features, such as required warm hand-offs or information, and by patient characteristics.
More about the research
An emergency department (ED) visit for an overdose is a key chance to start treatment, since the ED is often a patient's main contact with health care. Yet only about 1 in 12 patients seen in the ED for an opioid overdose is prescribed buprenorphine. Since 2015, at least five states have passed laws requiring EDs to offer MOUD, give patients information about it, or arrange "warm hand-offs" to ongoing care. Whether these laws actually work has not been measured.
Why it matters
Findings could guide lawmakers as they write and revise state ED MOUD laws. The aim is to get more people with opioid use disorder started on lifesaving medication after an overdose and to help them stay on it. More patients in treatment could mean fewer repeat overdoses and deaths. The public law database will also give other researchers and policymakers a ready resource for comparing state approaches.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shabbar Ranapurwala
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Examine racial inequities in Medicaid enrollment and in post-release access to MOUD and mental health care among formerly incarcerated people, using North Carolina's 2023 Medicaid expansion and linked records from 2013–2025.
Anne Black
Yale University, CT·Public Health & Epidemiology
Measure how time to a medically significant fall relates to current and cumulative methadone dose among VA patients who started methadone for opioid use disorder between 2016 and 2025.
Jennifer Waljee
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Public Health & Epidemiology
Measure how state opioid prescribing limits affect opioid prescribing and adverse events after surgery, and how effects vary by policy feature, patient, procedure and prescriber, using commercial, Medicare and Medicaid claims with quasi-experimental methods.
The school
University of Central Florida: 15 labs on PI Pages, $285M a year on research, 290 research doctorates a year.
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