ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2020
The cost of opioid use disorder and the value of aversion.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Cost per Opioid-Free Year: A Systematic Review and Summary Analysis.Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research · 2025Pooled it
- Economic Evaluations of Pharmacologic Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder: A Systematic Literature Review.Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research · 2021Pooled it
- Microcosting the optimization of PrEP implementation among sexual and gender minority individuals with a substance use disorder.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2026Trial
- Clinical Decision Support to Reduce Opioid Prescribing at Discharge for Inpatients Undergoing Surgery (LESS Study): An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Receipt of Pharmacotherapy and Association with Healthcare Utilization Among US Adults with Alcohol or Opioid Use Disorder, 2022-2023.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Cost-effectiveness of community-based interventions for reducing opioid overdose and non-overdose deaths: simulation modeling of HEALing Communities Study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Article
- Using Multistate Models and Qualitative Interviews to Comprehensively Characterize Substance Use Disorder Care Transitions in a US Health Care System: Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Stem Cell Models for Elucidating Cellular Mechanisms of Substance Use Disorders and Advancing Addiction Pharmacology.Stem cells international · 2026Review
- Article
- The neural circuits and signalling pathways of opioid use disorder.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2025Review
- Emergency Department-Based Medication for Opioid Use Disorder: A 5-Year Experience.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2025Article
- Association Between Opioid Use Disorder and Healthcare Spending and Utilization in Emergency Surgical Patients: A Retrospective Analysis Using Commercial Claims.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2025Article
- Persistent Opioid Use Following Major Orthopedic Surgery.Current pain and headache reports · 2025Review
- Cost-Effectiveness of Implementation Facilitation to Promote Emergency Department-Initiated Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder.Annals of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Preventing opioid prescribing for low back pain using multimodal mechanical stimulation vs. TENS: a randomized-controlled trial.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Real-world healthcare utilization and costs of peripheral nerve stimulation with a micro-IPG system.Pain management · 2025Observational
- Novel multimodal mechanical stimulation is superior to TENS to treat and prevent chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Smartphone App-Based Contingency Management and Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Outcomes.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Protocol for a randomized controlled trial with a stepped care approach, utilizing PrEP navigation with and without contingency management, for transgender women and sexual minority men with a substance use disorder: Assistance Services Knowledge-PrEP (A.S.K.-PrEP).Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- Starting a Prehospital Medication for Opioid Use Disorder Program.Prehospital and disaster medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe objective of this study was twofold. First, to update and estimate the economic burden of opioid use disorder (OUD) to the U.S. from the perspectives of the healthcare sector, taxpayer, and society, overall and by age. Second, to estimate the mean present value of averting an OUD, overall and by age, for use in economic evaluations of prevention-focused interventions.
methodsThis was a retrospective secondary analysis using 2018 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and the CDC WONDER Database on all U.S. persons, at least 12 years old, with an OUD, or who died of opioid overdose. Total OUD-related costs were estimated according to age and stakeholder perspective. Mean costs weighted by insurance type and the probability of mortality were estimated for each age, then used to estimate the mean present value of OUD aversion according to age and stakeholder perspective.
resultsThe total annual OUD-related costs to the U.S. in 2018 were $786.8 billion to society, $93 billion to taxpayers, and $89.1 billion to the healthcare sector. The mean present value of averting an OUD, across all ages, was $2.2 million, $325,125, and $244,030 from the societal, taxpayer, and healthcare sector perspectives, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The age-specific values of averting an OUD allow for more robust and targeted economic evaluations of competing interventions to reduce the burden of opioids on multiple stakeholders. The rise in the annual OUD-related cost largely reflects the increase in overdose deaths attributable to synthetic opioids (e.g., fentanyl).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.