Medication Treatment for OUD Linked With 80% Lower Risk of Fatal Overdose

Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) who receive treatment with methadone or buprenorphine have a significantly lower risk of dying from an opioid overdose compared with patients receiving nonmedication treatment, according to astudy inAddiction.“Compared with patients in nonmedication treatment, those in medication treatment had an 80% lower hazard of overdose death during care,” wrote Noa Krawczyk, Ph.D., of the NYU School of Medicine, and colleagues. The risk of fatal overdose significantly increased, however, in the first few weeks following discharge, regardless of the treatment type.The researchers used outpatient substance use specialty treatment records from 48,274 patients in Maryland from 2015 to 2016 and cross-referenced the data with opioid overdose death records. Treatment records were divided into two categories: those of patients who had received methadone or buprenorphine and those of patients who had received nonmedication treatment, such as psychotherapy, group and individual counseling, and educational programming. A treatment period could not be interrupted by more than two weeks.There were 371 deaths from opioid overdose during the study period. The opioid overdose rate was lowest when patients were receiving medication treatment, with a rate of .48 deaths per 1,000 person-years. In contrast, the rate for patients who received nonmedication treatment was 4.13 deaths per 1,000 person-years. Also, patients who had received medication treatment stayed...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Buprenorphine Methadone Substance use disorder Fatal overdose Medication treatment opioid opioid use disorder Source Type: research