Krans

Drs. Chang, Krans, and Miller conducted 15 semistructured interviews with pregnant and postpartum women who have experienced opioid use disorder (OUD) and intimate partner violence (IPV). Their team found that
➡️ Partners impacted their ability to seek OUD care
➡️ Seeking help for OUD and IPV was siloed and they wished for integrated services
➡️ They were more comfortable disclosing OUD than IPV
➡️ They perceived pregnancy as a barrier and facilitator to OUD care

Dr. Elizabeth Krans will present the next lecture from the group of 2023 Ascending Star Award winners on Delivering Health Care to Pregnant Persons with Substance Use Disorders: Empowerment in Recovery. The award recognizes highly productive, creative mid-career faculty members in the health sciences. Join Dr. Krans on Friday, Sept. 29, at 3:30 p.m., in Alan Magee Scaife Hall, room 5785 or join the livestream here:
https://pitt.zoom.us/j/97506970747

Drs. Jarlenski and Krans conducted a scoping review including seven studies that highlight the literature's limited understanding of why women in the first year postpartum are particularly vulnerable to opioid overdose. Recomendations within the literature include:

Drs. Gao, Krans, and Jarlenski found in their recent study that female parents are less likely to be diagnosed with a substance use disorder (SUD) or receive medication for an opioid use disorder (MOUD) than male parents. Removing policies that criminalize parental SUD and addressing childcare-related barriers may improve SUD identification and treatment.

Read more about their findings here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37214425/

Findings from Dr. Liz Krans' recent study include:

Drs. Jarlenski, Brown-Podgorski, and Krans sought to understand associations between race, receiving urine toxicology testing, and positive test results among pregnant patients. Findings show that Black patients experience increased drug testing practices.

Read more about their findings here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2803729

Drs. Chang, Krans, and Miller held semistructured interviews with pregnant and postpartum women who have experienced opioid use disorder and intimate partner violence regarding their experiences seeking help with both issues.

Alice Gao, Dr. Liz Krans, and Dr. Marian Jarlenski found that later diagnosis of opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy among non-White/Hispanic women partially explains the disparities in medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) receipt in this population. Universal substance use screening earlier in pregnancy, combined with connecting patients to evidence-based and culturally competent care, is an approach that could close the observed racial-ethnic disparity in MOUD receipt.

Drs. Elizabeth Krans and Beatrice Chen evaluated the effects of increased access to immediate postpartum contraceptive implants on repeat pregnancy and contraceptive use rates among patients with opioid use disorder.