Retention and critical outcomes among new methadone maintenance patients following extended take-home reforms: a retrospective observational cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Approximately 1800 opioid treatment programs (OTPs) in the US dispense methadone to upwards of 400,000 patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) annually, operating under longstanding highly restrictive guidelines. OTPs were granted novel flexibilities beginning March 15, 2020, allowing for reduced visit frequency and extended take-home doses to minimize COVID exposure with great variation across states and sites. We sought to use electronic health records to compare retention in treatment, opioid use, and adverse events among patients newly entering methadone maintenance in the post-reform period in comparison with year-ago, unexposed, controls.

Methods

Retrospective observational cohort study across 9 OTPs, geographically dispersed, in the National Institute of Dr

SUBMITTER: Williams AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10751716 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature