ArticleJournal of substance abuse treatment2023
National trends in buprenorphine prescribing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Journal of substance abuse treatment, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- "The Sky Didn't Fall": Patient and Clinician Experiences With Increased Buprenorphine Prescription Lengths During Pandemic-related Telehealth Expansion.Journal of addiction medicine · 2026Article
- Rurality weakens the positive association between the COVID-19 pandemic and substance use treatment involving medications for opioid use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- States With Substantial Increases In Buprenorphine Uptake Did So With Increased Medicaid Prescribing, 2018-24.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2025Article
- Analysis of buprenorphine distribution patterns among pharmacies and hospitals in the USA from 2019 to 2023.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Trends in Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder.JAMA health forum · 2025Article
- Different forms of stigma and rural primary care professionals' willingness to prescribe buprenorphine.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Article
- Evaluation of a Program Designed to Support Implementation of Prescribing Medication for Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in Primary Care Practices.Annals of family medicine · 2025Article
- Associations between COVID impact domains and time to buprenorphine treatment disengagement.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2025Article
- Rates of buprenorphine prescribing and racial disparities among patients with opioid overdose.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Article
- Trends in the Prescribing of Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder, 2019-2023.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2024Article
- Structural and social changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on engagement in substance use disorder treatment services: a qualitative study among people with a recent history of injection drug use in Baltimore, Maryland.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Buprenorphine Prescribing and Challenges Faced Among National Health Service Corps Clinicians.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder During COVID-19: Retrospective Study of Commercially Insured Patients from 2019-2022.American journal of preventive medicine · 2024Article
- Real-World Dispensing of Buprenorphine in California during Prepandemic and Pandemic Periods.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Financial Sustainability of Novel Delivery Models in Behavioral Health Treatment.The journal of mental health policy and economics · 2023Review
- Factors Affecting Initiation and Retention of Medication-Assisted Recovery (MAR) within a Pilot Pharmacist-Involved Practice Model at a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC) during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Bleeding related to oral anticoagulants: Trends in US emergency department visits, 2016-2020.Thrombosis research · 2023Article
- Individuals Dispensed Buprenorphine in the United States Before and After Federal Policy Changes Aimed at Increasing Access.Journal of addiction medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveRecent studies have shown that early in the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of buprenorphine prescription dispensing for opioid use disorder (OUD) were relatively stable. However, whether that pattern continued later in the pandemic is unclear. This study examines the monthly rate of dispensed buprenorphine prescriptions during the early period and the later period of the pandemic.
methodsThe study uses interrupted time series analysis to examine buprenorphine prescription dispensed, average day's supply, payment source, and the number of patients with a dispensed buprenorphine prescription. The study utilized January 2019-April 2021 data from IQVIA National Prescription Audit, PayerTrack and Total Patient Tracker databases.
resultsAfter an initial increase in the number of patients prescribed buprenorphine in the early period of the pandemic, the monthly rate of patients prescribed buprenorphine increased at a lower rate compared to the pre-pandemic period (6100 vs 4600/month). The study observed a decline in the number of buprenorphine prescriptions dispensed both in levels and growth rate during the pandemic, but an increase occurred in the average day's supply of buprenorphine prescriptions (17 days pre-pandemic vs 18.6 day during the pandemic). Medicaid became the primary payer of buprenorphine prescriptions as the pandemic continued, while buprenorphine prescriptions paid for by private insurance declined. DISCUSSION: Expanding and maintaining access to treatment for OUD were key priorities in federal and state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of our study underscore the importance of policy efforts to help increase buprenorphine prescribing for OUD.
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