How policy problems and solutions travel in the scientific literature: An international scientometric analysis of the French Model of opioid use disorder care.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 9609066 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1365-2753 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 13561294 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Eval Clin Pract Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Oxford, England : Wiley-Blackwell, c1995-

Opioid-Related Disorders* ; Buprenorphine*/therapeutic use; Humans ; United States ; Analgesics, Opioid/therapeutic use ; France ; Policy

Rationale: The 2007 article 'Why buprenorphine is so successful in treating opiate addiction in France' has been widely cited to promote various solutions to growing opioid-related harms across multiple jurisdictions globally. However, selective promotion of aspects of the French experience or promotion of the French experience without considering relevant contextual factors may inform policies that will not bring the same outcomes as in France, including the introduction of possible unintended negative consequences. The scientific literature is one important arena in which policy solutions are identified, evaluated, promoted and disseminated. Scientific communication of the French opioid use disorder care model offers a timely and relevant example through which to examine how problem representations travel and to consider the effects of these representations.
Aims and Objectives: We aimed to explore where, when, and how the content of this 2007 index article has travelled through the scientific literature.
Method: Informed by Bacchi's understanding of problem representation, we conducted a scientometric analysis of the index article. This included categorical analyses using a combination of citation metadata and content data to identify patterns across locations and time.
Results: Researchers in the United States and Anglophone countries affirmatively cited specific index study content, namely less stringent regulations and positive outcomes, such as reductions in overdose deaths and increases in buprenorphine utilization. These citations were more common after 2015 and were more likely to be in discussion sections of nonempirical publications. Researchers from France cited similar content but did so nonaffirmatively, and throughout the study period. Likewise, the French citations were mostly agenda-setting citations in the introductory sections of empirical studies. US studies received the highest attention based on number of citations and Altmetric scores.
Conclusion: US studies, by focusing on less stringent buprenorphine regulation as the primary solution of concern, have constructed opioid-related harms as a problem of restrictive regulations for buprenorphine. This selective focus on regulation, as opposed to other aspects of the French Model elucidated in the index article such as changes pertaining to the values and financing that structure health service delivery, represents an important missed opportunity for evidence-informed policy learning across jurisdictions.
(© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Boudreau DM, Lapham G, Johnson EA, et al. Documented opioid use disorder and its treatment in primary care patients across six U.S. health systems. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2020;112:41-48. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2020.02.001.
Bruneau J, Ahamad K, Goyer MÈ, et al. Management of opioid use disorders: a national clinical practice guideline. Can Med Assoc J. 2018;190(9):E247-E257. doi:10.1503/cmaj.170958.
Jin H, Marshall BDL, Degenhardt L, et al. Global opioid agonist treatment: a review of clinical practices by country. Addiction. 2020;115(12):2243-2254. doi:10.1111/add.15087.
Parida S, Carroll KM, Petrakis IL, Sofuoglu M. Buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder: recent progress. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2019;12(8):791-803. doi:10.1080/17512433.2019.1635454.
World Health Organization. World Health Organization model list of essential medicines, 21st List. 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/325771/WHO-MVP-EMP-IAU-2019.06-eng.pdf.
Buresh M, Stern R, Rastegar D. Treatment of opioid use disorder in primary care. BMJ. 2021;19:n784. doi:10.1136/bmj.n784.
Hsu YJ, Marsteller JA, Kachur SG, Fingerhood MI. Integration of buprenorphine treatment with primary care: comparative effectiveness on retention, utilization, and cost. Popul Health Manag. 2019;22(4):292-299. doi:10.1089/pop.2018.0163.
Kahan M, Srivastava A, Ordean A, Cirone S. Buprenorphine: new treatment of opioid addiction in primary care. Can Fam Physician. 2011;57(3):281-289. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21402963.
Korthuis PT, McCarty D, Weimer M, et al. Primary care-based models for the treatment of opioid use disorder: a scoping review. Ann Intern Med. 2017;166(4):268-278. doi:10.7326/M16-2149.
Lagisetty P, Klasa K, Bush C, Heisler M, Chopra V, Bohnert A. Primary care models for treating opioid use disorders: what actually works? A systematic review. PLoS One. 2017;12(10):e0186315. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186315.
Fatseas M, Auriacombe M. Why buprenorphine is so successful in treating opiate addiction in France. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2007;9(5):358-364. doi:10.1007/s11920-007-0046-2.
Haraldsen M. Opioid* substitution treatment (OST): a French/Portuguese lesson for Norway and others. J Reward Defic Syndr Addict Sci. 2017;2(4):78-84. doi:10.17756/jrdsas.2017-031.
Fiscella K, Wakeman SE, Beletsky L. Buprenorphine deregulation and mainstreaming treatment for opioid use disorder: X the X waiver. JAMA Psychiatry. 2019;76(3):229. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.3685.
Weimer MB, Wakeman SE, Saitz R. Removing one barrier to opioid use disorder treatment: is it enough. JAMA. 2021;325(12):1147. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.0958.
Eaton EF. “rapid start” treatment to end the (Other) epidemic: walking the tightrope without a net. Clin Infect Dis. 2021;72(3):479-481. doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa064.
Prathivadi P, Sturgiss EA. When will opioid agonist therapy become a normal part of comprehensive health care. Med J Aust. 2021;214(11):504-505. doi:10.5694/mja2.51095.
Rose R. Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy: A Guide to Learning across Time and Space. Chatham House Publishers; 1993.
Okma KG, Marmor TR. Comparative studies and healthcare policy: learning and mislearning across borders. Clin Med. 2013;13(5):487-491. doi:10.7861/clinmedicine.13-5-487.
Squires JE, Hutchinson AM, Coughlin M, et al. Stakeholder perspectives of attributes and features of context relevant to knowledge translation in health settings: a multi-country analysis. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2021;11(8):1373-1390. doi:10.34172/ijhpm.2021.32.
Schneider EC, Shah A, Doty MM, Tikkanen R, Fields K, Williams RD, II. Mirror, Mirror 2021: Reflecting Poorly. Commonwealth Fund; 2021. doi:10.26099/01DV-H208.
Hagenaars LL, Klazinga NS, Mueller M, Morgan DJ, Jeurissen PPT. How and why do countries differ in their governance and financing-related administrative expenditure in health care? An analysis of OECD countries by health care system typology. Int J Health Plann Manage. 2018;33(1):e263-e278. doi:10.1002/hpm.2458.
Weaver MR, Nandakumar V, Joffe J, et al. Variation in health care access and quality among US states and High-Income countries with universal health insurance coverage. JAMA Network Open. 2021;4(6):e2114730. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.14730.
Olmen JV, Criel B, Bhojani U, et al. The health system dynamics framework: the introduction of an analytical model for health system analysis and its application to two case-studies. Health, Cult Soc. 2012;2(1):1-21. doi:10.5195/hcs.2012.71.
Compton WM, Valentino RJ, DuPont RL. Polysubstance use in the U.S. opioid crisis. Mol Psychiatry. 2021;26(1):41-50. doi:10.1038/s41380-020-00949-3.
Bacchi C. Analysing Policy: What's the Problem Represented to Be? Pearson; 2009. https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/59725.
Bacchi C. Why study problematizations? Making politics visible. Open J of Polit Sci. 2012;02(01):1-8. doi:10.4236/ojps.2012.21001.
Bacchi C, Goodwin S. Poststructural Policy Analysis: A Guide to Practice. Palgrave Pivot; 2016. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-52546-8.
Almeida C, Báscolo E. Use of research results in policy decision-making, formulation, and implementation: a review of the literature. Cad Saude Publica. 2006;22(Suppl):S7-S19. doi:10.1590/s0102-311x2006001300002.
Weiss JA, Weiss CH. Social scientists and decision makers look at the usefulness of mental health research. Am Psychol. 1981;36(8):837-847. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.36.8.837.
Weiss CH. The many meanings of research utilization. Public Adm Rev. 1979;39(5):426-431. doi:10.2307/3109916.
Oliver K, Cairney P. The dos and don'ts of influencing policy: a systematic review of advice to academics. Palgrave Commun. 2019;5(1):21. doi:10.1057/s41599-019-0232-y.
Pálsson G, Rabinow P. The Iceland: reflections on the transnational market of civic virtue. In: Ong A, Collier SJ, eds. Global assemblages: Technology, politics, and ethics as anthropological problems. Blackwell; 2006:91-104. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470696569.
Leydesdorff L, Milojević S. Scientometrics. arXiv preprint arXiv: 1208.4566. 2012. http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.4566.
Dimensions AI. Dimensions. Accessed July 18, 2022. https://www.dimensions.ai/.
Mouratidis RW. Dimensions. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019;107(3):459-461. doi:10.5195/jmla.2019.695.
Chambers T. Dimensions. J Can Health Libr Assoc. 2019;40(1):23-26. doi:10.29173/jchla29405.
Sud A, Cheng DK, Moineddin R, Zlahtic E, Upshur R. Time series-based bibliometric analysis of a systematic review of multidisciplinary care for opioid dose reduction: exploring the origins of the North American opioid crisis. Scientometrics. 2021;126(11):8935-8955. doi:10.1007/s11192-021-04154-z.
Tafreshi S, Steiner A, Sud A. Shifting interpretations in evidence and guidance in pain and opioids research: a bibliometric analysis of a highly cited case series from 1986. J Eval Clin Pract. 2022;28(4):509-519. doi:10.1111/jep.13680.
Tahamtan I, Bornmann L. What do citation counts measure? an updated review of studies on citations in scientific documents published between 2006 and 2018. Scientometrics. 2019;121(3):1635-1684. doi:10.1007/s11192-019-03243-4.
Bornmann L, Daniel HD. What do citation counts measure? a review of studies on citing behavior. J Doc. 2008;64(1):45-80. doi:10.1108/00220410810844150.
Thelwall M. Are classic references cited first? An analysis of citation order within article sections. Scientometrics. 2019;120(2):723-731. doi:10.1007/s11192-019-03142-8.
Mogull SA. Accuracy of cited “facts” in medical research articles: a review of study methodology and recalculation of quotation error rate. PLoS One. 2017;12(9):e0184727. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0184727.
Rivkin A. Manuscript referencing errors and their impact on shaping current evidence. Am J Pharm Educ. 2020;84(7):ajpe7846. doi:10.5688/ajpe7846.
Aagaard K, Mongeon P, Ramos-Vielba I, Thomas DA. Getting to the bottom of research funding: acknowledging the complexity of funding dynamics. PLoS One. 2021;16(5):e0251488. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251488.
Heyard R, Hottenrott H. The value of research funding for knowledge creation and dissemination: a study of SNSF research grants. Humanit Soc Sci Commun. 2021;8(1):217. doi:10.1057/s41599-021-00891-x.
Fabbri A, Lai A, Grundy Q, Bero LA. The influence of industry sponsorship on the research agenda: a scoping review. Am J Public Health. 2018;108(11):e9-e16. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304677.
Ahn R, Woodbridge A, Abraham A, et al. Financial ties of principal investigators and randomized controlled trial outcomes: cross sectional study. BMJ. 2017;356:i6770. doi:10.1136/bmj.i6770.
Friedman LS, Richter ED. Relationship between conflicts of interest and research results. J Gen Intern Med. 2004;19(1):51-56. doi:10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30617.x.
Australian and New Zealand standard research classification (ANZSRC). Australian Bureau of Statistics. Published June 30, 2020. Accessed August 7, 2022. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/australian-and-new-zealand-standard-research-classification-anzsrc/latest-release.
Araujo AC, Vanin AA, Nascimento DP, Gonzalez GZ, Costa LOP. What are the variables associated with Altmetric scores? Syst Rev. 2021;10(1):193. doi:10.1186/s13643-021-01735-0.
Legrand T. The Architecture of Policy Transfer. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55821-5.
Legrand T. Elite, exclusive and elusive: transgovernmental policy networks and iterative policy transfer in the Anglosphere. Policy Studies. 2016;37(5):440-455. doi:10.1080/01442872.2016.1188912.
Understanding the Epidemic. Published February 9, 2022. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html.
FACT SHEET: President Obama proposes $1.1 billion in new funding to address the prescription opioid abuse and heroin use epidemic. whitehouse.gov. Published February 2, 2016. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/02/02/president-obama-proposes-11-billion-new-funding-address-prescription.
McGinty EE, Stone EM, Kennedy-Hendricks A, Sanders K, Beacham A, Barry CL. U.S. news media coverage of solutions to the opioid crisis, 2013-2017. Prev Med. 2019;126:105771. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.105771.
Hswen Y, Zhang A, Freifeld C, Brownstein JS. Evaluation of volume of news reporting and Opioid-Related deaths in the United States: comparative analysis study of geographic and socioeconomic differences. J Med Internet Res. 2020;22(7):e17693. doi:10.2196/17693.
NIH funds $945 million in research to tackle the national opioid crisis through NIH HEAL Initiative. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Published September 25, 2019. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-funds-945-million-research-tackle-national-opioid-crisis-through-nih-heal-initiative.
Ho JY. The contemporary American drug overdose epidemic in international perspective. Popul Dev Rev. 2019;45(1):7-40. doi:10.1111/padr.12228.
Opioid harm in Australia: and comparisons between Australia and Canada. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/opioid-harm-in-australia/summary.
United Kingdom, Country Drug Report 2019. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/country-drug-reports/2019/united-kingdom_en.
Bergeron H, Colson R. What lessons from France's experience could be applied in the United States in response to the addiction and overdose crisis? Addiction. 2022;117(5):1191-1192. doi:10.1111/add.15826.
Seyler T, Giraudon I, Noor A, Mounteney J, Griffiths P. Is Europe facing an opioid epidemic: what does European monitoring data tell us? Eur J Pain. 2021;25(5):1072-1080. doi:10.1002/ejp.1728.
France, country drug report 2019. Accessed August 16, 2022. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/country-drug-reports/2019/france_en.
National report 2011: France. Accessed August 16, 2022. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/html.cfm/index191712EN.html_en.
National report 2014: France. Accessed August 16, 2022. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/national-reports/france-2014_en.
Dupouy J, Maumus-Robert S, Mansiaux Y, Pariente A, Lapeyre-Mestre M. Primary care of opioid use disorder: the end of “the French model”? Eur Addict Res. 2020;26(6):346-354. doi:10.1159/000506630.
Guillou Landreat M, Baillot M, Le Goff D, Le Reste JY. Acute pain management among patients with opioid maintenance therapy: specificities and difficulties identified in primary care: a qualitative study. BMJ Open. 2021;11(1):e044433. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044433.
Casassus B. Scientists disappointed by plan to boost France's research prowess. Nature. 2020. Accessed August 25, 2022. Published July 23, 2020. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02217-4.
Balancing access to opioid substitution treatment (OST) with preventing the diversion of opioid substitution medications in Europe: challenges and implications. Accessed September 13, 2022. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/technical-reports/opioid-substitution-treatment-ost-in-europe-availability-and-diversion_en.
Derbel I, Ghorbel A, Akrout FM, Zahaf A. Opiate withdrawal syndrome in buprenorphine abusers admitted to a rehabilitation center in Tunisia. Afr Health Sci. 2017;16(4):1067-1077. doi:10.4314/ahs.v16i4.24.
Parfitt T. Designer drug subutex takes its toll in Tbilisi. Lancet. 2006;368(9532):273-274. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69056-9.
Li X, Shorter D, Kosten TR. Buprenorphine prescribing: to expand or not to expand. J Psychiatr Pract. 2016;22(3):183-192. doi:10.1097/PRA.0000000000000154.
Moon JY, Yoon DY, Hong JH, et al. The most widely disseminated COVID-19-Related scientific publications in online media: a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 articles with the highest Altmetric attention scores. Healthcare (Basel). 2021;9(2):9. doi:10.3390/healthcare9020239.
Nielsen MW, Andersen JP. Global citation inequality is on the rise. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2021;118(7):e2012208118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2012208118.
USA's highly-cited researchers power ahead. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.researchinformation.info/news/usas-highly-cited-researchers-power-ahead.
Di Bitetti MS, Ferreras JA. Publish (in English) or perish: the effect on citation rate of using languages other than English in scientific publications. Ambio. 2017;46(1):121-127. doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0820-7.
Bahji A, Acion L, Laslett AM, Adinoff B. Exclusion of the non-English-speaking world from the scientific literature: recommendations for change for addiction journals and publishers. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. 2022;40:6-13. doi:10.1177/14550725221102227.
Danell R. Geographical diversity and changing communication regimes: a study of publication activity and international citation patterns. Published online 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-80105.
Barak Y, Philpot M, Levy R. Citation patterns in theinternational journal of geriatric psychiatry: cultural ethnocentrism revisited? Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 1995;10(12):1015-1018. doi:10.1002/gps.930101204.
West R, McIlwaine A. What do citation counts count for in the field of addiction? An empirical evaluation of citation counts and their link with peer ratings of quality. Addiction (Abingdon, England). 2002;97(5):501-504. doi:10.1046/j.1360-0443.2002.00104.x.
Pasterkamp G, Rotmans JI, de Kleijn DVP, Borst C. Citation frequency: a biased measure of research impact significantly influenced by the geographical origin of research articles. Scientometrics. 2007;70(1):153-165. doi:10.1007/s11192-007-0109-5.
Igoumenou A, Ebmeier K, Roberts N, Fazel S. Geographic trends of scientific output and citation practices in psychiatry. BMC Psychiatry. 2014;14:332. doi:10.1186/s12888-014-0332-6.
Mancher M, Ai L, Committee on Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder. Barriers to Broader Use of Medications to Treat Opioid Use Disorder. In: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Save Lives. National Academies Press (US); 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541389/.
Smith M, Upshur R. Pandemic disease, public health, and ethics. In: Mastroianni AC, Kahn JP, Kass NE, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics. Oxford University Press; 2019:796-811. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190245191.013.69.
Sud A, McGee M, Mintzes B, Herder M. Permissive regulation: a critical review of the regulatory history of buprenorphine formulations in Canada. Int J Drug Policy. 2022;105:103749. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103749.
Grundy Q, Dunn AG, Bourgeois FT, Coiera E, Bero L. Prevalence of disclosed conflicts of interest in biomedical research and associations with journal impact factors and Altmetric scores. JAMA. 2018;319(4):408-409. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.20738.
Sud A, Strang M, Buchman DZ, et al. How the suboxone education programme presented as a solution to risks in the Canadian opioid crisis: a critical discourse analysis. BMJ Open. 2022;12(7):e059561. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059561.

Health Canada; 1920-HQ-000031 Substance Use and Addiction Program, Health Canada

Keywords: France; bibliometrics; buprenorphine; health policy; health services; opioid-related disorders

0 (Analgesics, Opioid)
40D3SCR4GZ (Buprenorphine)

Date Created: 20230307 Date Completed: 20230519 Latest Revision: 20230523

20240628

10.1111/jep.13822

36880987