Emergency health care providers' positive regard for patients with opioid use disorder: Exploring the intersectional influence of race and medical condition.

OBJECTIVE: The opioid epidemic continues to devastate communities throughout the United States; however, those in need of life-saving care for opioid misuse report many barriers to accessing and initiating treatment. Opioid-related stigmatization and racial biases undermine the provision of high-quality health care, reducing the likelihood of treatment-seeking behavior among those with opioid use disorder. While people experiencing opioid-related harms such as overdose frequently present to emergency departments, an experimental test examining attitudes of emergency department personnel in regard to the influence of patient racial background on opioid use disorder status has not been conducted.

METHOD: We recruited emergency health care professionals (N = 152) to assess attitudes toward hypothetical patients via a case vignette study. Participants were presented with three vignettes in randomized order, each depicting a medical/psychiatric condition requiring emergency care (i.e., opioid overdose, psychosis, and chest pain). The race of the hypothetical patient was examined as a between-subjects factor, with participants randomly assigned to receive a set of White-presenting or Black-presenting patients. Participants provided ratings of preference and positive regard for each condition.

RESULTS: Positive regard was significantly lower for patients presenting with opioid overdose and psychosis, compared to chest pain, and for White-presenting versus Black-presenting patients. A significant interaction between condition and patient race was not detected.

CONCLUSIONS: Stigma-reduction interventions for emergency care providers treating patients with opioid-related conditions are critical to ensure that this at-risk group receives life-saving care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).