Here are our Top 20 research picks for August - a curated selection of new publications we think are especially relevant to the SUHN community. We collected many more papers over the month, so if you want to see the full list, check out our SUHN Monthly Research Round Up.
Toxicities prevention and response
Ali, F., et al. (2026). The role of oxygen in shelter-based overdose response: A qualitative needs assessment across shelter sites in Toronto, Canada. International Journal of Drug Policy.
Across eight Toronto shelters, clients and staff described supplemental oxygen and pulse oximetry as useful additions to drug-toxicity response, especially when sedating co-exposures may limit naloxone-only response—and identified training and policy support as essential.
Formica, S. W., et al. (2026). “We were focused so long on opioids that stimulants have always been under the rug”: Adapting post-overdose outreach for cocaine- and methamphetamine-involved events. International Journal of Drug Policy.
Massachusetts post-poisoning outreach programs described how services built largely around opioid events need different strategies to identify and engage people after cocaine- and methamphetamine-involved events; the work informed a stimulant-inclusive outreach toolkit.
Safer supply / prescribed alternatives
Kolla, G., et al. (2026). “Safer supply is the thing that changes everything”: the role of prescribed safer supply in rebuilding trust following experiences of medical abandonment. BMC Public Health.
Participants described medical abandonment, punitive treatment and stigma before entering safer-supply programs; respectful safer-supply care helped rebuild trust and re-engage people with healthcare, while the authors warn that punitive surveillance can recreate the harms these programs are trying to address.
Hogan, K., et al. (2026). The characteristics and experiences of parents accessing prescribed safer supply in BC, 2020–2021. Harm Reduction Journal.
Parents accessing prescribed safer supply described strong family-related motivations alongside distinct barriers—including fear of child-welfare involvement and competing caregiving demands, highlighting the need for parent-centred, non-punitive services.
Norton, A., et al. (2026). Safer supply deprescribing during a toxic drug poisoning crisis in Vancouver, Canada. Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Among 353 Vancouver participants accessing prescribed safer supply, 17.6% reported being deprescribed; deprescribing was associated with nonfatal drug toxicity and difficulty accessing addiction treatment, and participants described increased unregulated drug use and negative health and social impacts afterward.
Harm reduction services & access
Anasti, T., et al. (2026). How survivors of exploitation who use drugs navigate systems of care: an analysis of survivor insights using the intersectional risk environment. Harm Reduction Journal.
Interviews with survivors of exploitation who use drugs show how poor medical care, criminal-legal involvement, restrictions on mobility and intersecting stigma can compound barriers to health and safety, pointing to the need for structural as well as individual-level harm reduction responses.
Rural and remote communities and research
Bardwell, G., Hodgson, K., Jayathilake, A., Pereira, E., & Colby, K. (2026). Rethinking Community-Based Research in Rural Canadian Settings: Relational Density, Structural Vulnerability, and Ethics of Care in the Context of an Overdose Crisis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods.
Drawing on community-based research in the qathet region of BC, this methods paper shows how tight-knit rural communities reshape research participation, privacy, consent and ethics, and argues that practices sometimes treated as methodological limitations may instead be necessary acts of care.
Colston, D. C., et al. (2026). “It’s a last straw situation”; Overdose response and preferences for seeking support from emergency services during overdose in rural Ohio. PLOS ONE.
Interviews in rural Ohio found that emergency services were often treated as a “last straw” after lay response attempts; fear of arrest, hospitalization and stigma commonly discouraged 911 calls.
Mathias, H., et al. (2026). Towards caring communities: A community-based qualitative inquiry of family caregiving for people who use drugs in rural settings. International Journal of Drug Policy.
A community-based qualitative study of family caregiving for people who use drugs in rural settings highlights how gaps in formal substance-use services shift substantial unpaid care onto families, and points toward community- and systems-level responses rather than relying on individual caregivers alone.
Clinical care
Abramowich, A., et al. (2026). Implementing a new model of substance use care in British Columbia: healthcare staff experiences from the Road to Recovery initiative. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice.
Healthcare staff describe the strengths and challenges of implementing Vancouver’s new hospital-based withdrawal-management model, including trauma-informed care, peer and Indigenous roles, staffing constraints and responses to return to use.
Bakewell, N., et al. (2026). Recent hydromorphone injection and risk of incident infective endocarditis among people who inject drugs in Toronto, Canada: a cohort study. Harm Reduction Journal.
A Toronto cohort study found no clear association between recent hydromorphone injection and incident infective endocarditis compared with other injected opioids or drugs. Due to low event rates and the resulting wide CIs, the findings are limited by low statistical precision.
Comstock, G., et al. (2026). Paramedic perspectives on prehospital buprenorphine: A qualitative case study of implementation in emergency medical services. American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
A qualitative case study examines paramedic perspectives on implementing prehospital buprenorphine, which is a timely issue as EMS systems increasingly consider treating opioid withdrawal in the field.
Franz, B., et al. (2026). Medication Approaches for Patients With Opioid Use Disorders: Differences Between Primary Care Clinics and Specialty Addiction Treatment Programs. Journal of Addiction Medicine.
Across 62 primary care and specialty addiction treatment programs, specialty programs had lower MOUD capacity, fewer prescribers and less support for low-threshold care, even though they were located in communities with greater overdose and treatment needs.
Jiang, X., Zhang, K., & Chen, Y. (2026). Abandonment of Prescribed Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder, 2020–2024. JAMA Network Open.
A U.S. cohort study found that the proportion of first buprenorphine prescriptions that were never dispensed rose from 19% in 2020 to 37% in 2024, highlighting persistent pharmacy, insurance and other access barriers after a prescription is written.
Kolaitis, N. A., et al. (2026). How to Care for the Patient With Methamphetamine-Associated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. CHEST.
A practical clinical review of methamphetamine-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension that combines PAH pharmacotherapy with harm reduction and support from addiction medicine and social work.
McMahan, V. M., et al. (2026). Provider Perspectives on the Delivery of Long-Acting PrEP for HIV Prevention to Men Who Have Sex with Men and Who Use Methamphetamine. AIDS Patient Care and STDs.
Interviews with 17 providers serving HIV-negative men who have sex with men and use methamphetamine identified housing instability, stigma and clinic-level constraints as barriers to long-acting PrEP; suggested strategies included mobile delivery, extended hours and integrating PrEP with services such as syringe programs.
Mehrotra, A., et al. (2026). Comparison of buprenorphine treatment by virtual-only vs. traditional clinicians. Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment.
A large U.S. study comparing virtual-only and traditional buprenorphine care found different strengths and limitations in each model: virtual-only patients had more follow-up visits and were more likely to have buprenorphine at six months, but had fewer days of continuous treatment.
Drug policy
Ali, F., et al. (2026). The symbolic power of decriminalization and recriminalization in shaping stigma toward people who use drugs in British Columbia. BMC Public Health.
Interviews with 75 people who use drugs across BC found that stigma remained pervasive during decriminalization and was often experienced as worsening after the 2024 policy reversal, which participants described as legitimizing hostility and reinforcing shame.
Community safety & public opinion
Pang, N., et al. (2026). Mapping needles, reducing harm: Findings from a geospatial, community-based needle collection and naloxone training initiative in Saskatchewan, Canada. Harm Reduction Journal.
A Regina community-based initiative used reports of discarded needles to map hotspots and target pop-up naloxone training; 2,836 needles were removed over one year, while geospatial analysis identified neighbourhood gaps in access to harm-reduction services.
Morris, T., Muckle, J., & Boyd, R. (2026). A safer downtown for all: The inclusion of people who use drugs in community safety. Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being.
Ottawa Inner City Health’s peer-led Block Leader program paid and supported unhoused people who use drugs to take on neighbourhood stewardship, safety and service-linkage roles—offering a concrete model for including PWUD in community safety rather than treating them as its problem.
