Opioid Addiction, Genetic Susceptibility, and Medical Treatments

Research Question

The research design chosen by the researchers answers the research question because they report and appraise findings from various primary articles and reviews on the three main areas of their research. They present their findings on the concepts of opioid addiction, genetic susceptibility, and medical treatments. For instance, on the concept of medical treatment, they provide primary research findings on effective and potent medical interventions for opioid addiction. Findings from one of the studies reported in the research revealed that methadone is an effective treatment based on the evidence that it causes lesser withdrawal symptoms and is less reinforcing because it has a longer half-life (Wang et al., 2019).

Search Process

The initial step of having a comprehensible and reproducible search strategy is the development of a clear and focused research question (Bramer et al., 2018). The authors of the review under appraisal in this assignment fulfilled this requirement by setting out a succinct research topic that exploratively presented the areas of research. As such, they aimed to investigate opioid addiction, genetic risk, and effective medical treatments. The identification of this research topic further led to the streamlining of the search process by identifying keywords for their search strategy. Their identified keywords are a replica of the research topic, and they represent a widened scope of search through the application of synonyms and appropriate use of Boolean operators for the search process. Even so, the researchers failed to provide some aspects of their search strategy, such as the databases searched, the article selection process, and the number of articles included in the appraisal (Rethlefsen et al., 2021).

Translation to Practice

I would consider using the findings from the research in my practice and practice change program as it provides insightful knowledge regarding effective treatment for opioid addiction. The findings help me on reflecting on the occurrence of opioid addiction relapse and recurrent despite there being effective treatment options like methadone, buprenorphine, and naloxone (Wang et al., 2019). These findings prepare me to make treatment programs more personalized for the patients I see and also apply pharmacogenomics in the treatment plans. The article further generates a need for further research on the concept of genetic susceptibility to addiction. Knowing such predisposing factors will help me provide more preventive services for improved health promotion. The research provides an explorative approach to determining the genetic susceptibility to addiction. They provide this evidence from studies that stretch as far back as the 1960s when alcoholism was found to co-occur in twins. They further establish that commonly abused drugs like opiates, marijuana, and sedatives have an overall genetic variance of 0.3-0.5.; with the highest heritability being evidenced in opioid addiction. The findings presented in the study generate useful insights into gene-mediated therapy for addiction and also identify a novel therapeutic approach that can be pursued with further research. Wang et al. (2019) report findings from primary studies evidencing the potential therapeutic intervention of approaches such as cell therapy and gene therapy. Based on the established heritability of opioid addiction that stems from genetic defects, it becomes reasonable to adopt gene editing technologies to attain both treatment and preventive goals for opioid addiction. The findings in the study evidence novel approaches to care that can be used for current practice and pursued in research to come up with a wider base of treatment options that are not just limited to the conventional medications for opioid addiction treatment.

Use of the Study

I would use the study as support to analyze my selected practice problem because, first, it is a recent article. The research has updated findings on the subjects of treatment and genetics; thus, it helps track the steps that have been taken in research in investigating these concepts. Basing practice on such findings ensures that the practice is based on current practice and also generates an innovative approach to the next course of research to address gaps. Further, the research has a high level of evidence based on the fact that its findings, conclusions, and recommendations are based on the collective findings from other primary as well as secondary sources. Systematic reviews possess level I of evidence that makes them highly rich in the pool of evidence that can be used for practice change and knowledge gathering on a given topic. The quality of the studies appraised in the study is high, and they are relevant to the research topic as established from the keyword search.

References

Bramer, W. M., De Jonge, G. B., Rethlefsen, M. L., Mast, F., & Kleijnen, J. (2018). A systematic approach to searching: an efficient and complete method to develop literature searches. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 106(4), 531.

Rethlefsen, M. L., Kirtley, S., Waffenschmidt, S., Ayala, A. P., Moher, D., Page, M. J., & Koffel, J. B. (2021). PRISMA-S: an extension to the PRISMA statement for reporting literature searches in systematic reviews. Systematic reviews, 10, 1-19.

Wang, S. C., Chen, Y. C., Lee, C. H., & Cheng, C. M. (2019). Opioid addiction, genetic susceptibility, and medical treatments: a review. International journal of molecular sciences, 20(17), 4294.