Overdose prevention centers (OPCs) offer life-saving interventions in the event of an overdose along with on-site harm reduction services. While studies of OPCs in other countries have shown that they can reduce overdose deaths without increasing crime, they remain a novel concept in the United States. Before the recent opening of the nation’s first state-sanctioned OPC, researchers at the Brown University School of Public Health surveyed people living and working in the Providence, Rhode Island, neighborhood where it is located, to ask about their perceptions of the center. They found that 74% of survey participants supported an OPC opening in their neighborhood and 81% supported an OPC elsewhere in the city, while 13% expressed neutrality. The results of the survey are published in the Journal of Urban Health.

New research on the biological basis of addiction has found that the critical epigenetic enzyme histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5) limits the expression of the gene Scn4b, regulating neuronal activity and thereby the formation of strong drug-related memories, which can trigger relapse in individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs). The study in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, detailing these epigenetic mechanisms in the brain, uncovers a new molecular target for the development of novel SUD treatments.