Patients with opioid use disorder receiving treatment after inpatient care had increased one-year survival
WEDNESDAY, April 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) — People who receive additional treatment following medically managed opioid withdrawal have reduced mortality compared with those who do not receive treatment, according to a study recently published in Addiction.
Alexander Y. Walley, M.D., M.P.H., from the Boston University School of Medicine-Boston Medical Center, and colleagues conducted a cohort study using public health datasets to examine the association between mortality and continued treatment following inpatient detox among 30,681 opioid detox patients with 61,819 detox episodes between 2012 and 2014.
The researchers found that one year after detox, 41 percent of patients had received medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD; median treatment duration, three months), 35 percent received residential treatment (two months), and 13 percent received both (five months). Compared with no treatment, patients who received MOUD, residential treatment, and both experienced mortality (adjusted hazard ratios, 0.34, 0.63, and 0.11, respectively). Opioid-related overdose mortality followed similar trends.
“Opioid use disorder is a chronic condition best addressed with ongoing treatment,” Walley said in a statement. “The data from our study shows that medication and residential treatment for opioid use disorder reduce the risk of overdose and death, but these treatments need to continue in order to be effective.”
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