ArticlePloS one2022
Nothing really changed: Arizona patient experience of methadone and buprenorphine access during COVID.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The impact of relaxing restrictions on take-home doses during the COVID-19 pandemic on program effectiveness and client experiences in opioid agonist treatment: a mixed methods systematic review.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2023Pooled it
- Envisioning a Humane and Accessible US Methadone Treatment System: Generating Policy and Practice Recommendations From the Liberate Methadone Movement.Substance use & addiction journal · 2026Article
- Narrative Review of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Impact on American Indian/Alaska Native Communities.Nursing open · 2026Review
- De-implementation of inequitable methadone policy and treatment: lessons learned from COVID-19 to support a more just methadone treatment system in the United States.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Methadone Patient Access to Collaborative Treatment: Protocol for a Pilot and a Randomized Controlled Trial to Establish Feasibility of Adoption and Impact on Methadone Treatment Delivery and Patient Outcomes.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- "I still can feel the sickness": Withdrawal experiences of people on methadone maintenance treatment.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Article
- Methadone clinic staff perceptions of trauma-informed and patient-centered care: the role of individual staff characteristics.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- Spatial inequities in access to medications for treatment of opioid use disorder highlight scarcity of methadone providers under counterfactual scenarios.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- "It didn't hurt me": patients' and providers' perspectives on unsupervised take-home doses, drug diversion, and overdose risks in the provision of medication for opioid use disorder during COVID-19 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Insufficient Impact: Limited Implementation of Federal Regulatory Changes to Methadone and Buprenorphine Access in Arizona During COVID-19.AJPM focus · 2024Article
- Spatial inequities in access to medications for treatment of opioid use disorder highlight scarcity of methadone providers under counterfactual scenarios.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- How are state telehealth policies associated with services offered by substance use disorder treatment facilities? Evidence from 2019 to 2022.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Article
- "As safe as possible": a qualitative study of opioid withdrawal and risk behavior among people who use illegal opioids.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Patient experiences of methadone treatment changes during the first wave of COVID-19: a national community-driven survey.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Opportunities and ChallengesAJPM focus · 2023Article
- North Carolina Medicaid System Perspectives on Substance Use Disorder Treatment Policy Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of addiction medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo understand patient experience of federal regulatory changes governing methadone and buprenorphine (MOUD) access in Arizona during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsThis community-based participatory and action research study involved one-hour, audio-recorded field interviews conducted with 131 people who used methadone and/or buprenorphine to address opioid use disorder at some point during COVID (January 1, 2020- March 31, 2021) in Arizona. Transcribed data were analyzed using a priori codes focused on federally recommended flexibilities governing MOUD access. Data were quantitated to investigate associations with COVID risk and services access.
resultsTelehealth was reported by 71.0% of participants, but the majority were required to come to the clinic to attend video appointments with an offsite provider. Risk for severe COVID outcomes was reported by 40.5% of the sample. Thirty-eight percent of the sample and 39.7% of methadone patients were required to be at the clinic daily to get medication and 47.6% were at high risk for COVID severe outcomes. About half (54.2%) of methadone patients indicated that some form of multi-day take home dosing was offered at their clinic, and 45.8% were offered an extra day or two of multi-day doses; but no participants received the federally allowed 14- or 28-day methadone take-home doses for unstable and stable patients respectively. All participants expressed that daily clinic visits interrupted their work and home lives and desired more take-home dosing and home delivery options.
conclusionsMOUD patients in Arizona were not offered many of the federally allowed flexibilities for access that were designed to reduce their need to be at the clinic. To understand the impact of these recommended treatment changes in Arizona, and other states where they were not well implemented, federal and state regulators must mandate these changes and support MOUD providers to implement them.
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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.