Few U.S. Opioid Overdose Survivors Get Timely Addiction Treatment - Barter in okoojjijj

Patients treated in the emergency room for opioid overdoses have a much better chance of beating addiction and avoiding a fatal overdose in the future if they start treatment for opioid use disorder as soon as possible. But even when they have private health insurance — which should in theory include coverage for addiction — most overdose survivors still don’t get the help they need.

A study published in May 2020 in JAMA Network Open examined health insurance claims data for 6,451 adults treated for opioid overdoses in U.S. emergency rooms from 2011 to 2016. A total of 1,069 patients, or 16.6 percent, obtained follow-up treatment within 90 days after the overdose.

The odds were even lower for people who hadn’t received medication to treat opioid use disorder before. Just 11.1 percent of these people received treatment within 90 days after their overdose, compared with 62.5 percent of people who had received medication or therapy for addiction before.

Researchers looked at treatment with medications like buprenorphine — considered the gold standard for opioid use disorder — as well medical interventions like behavioral health services and outpatient treatment programs. Only 4.6 percent of patients who didn’t get medication for opioid use disorder before their overdose got a prescription within 90 days afterwards.

Buprenorphine controls withdrawal symptoms and prevents overdose in the case of relapse, even if someone uses opioids, says lead study author Austin Kilaru, MD, an associate fellow at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“It is important for patients who have symptoms of withdrawal to be offered this medication to help them feel better, reducing the need to obtain injection or prescription opioids to control those symptoms,” Dr. Kilaru says. “The period after an overdose is high risk — patients are at risk for a repeat overdose and even death — and early initiation of these medications helps prevent those outcomes.”