ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2023
Buprenorphine Treatment Episodes During the First Year of COVID: a Retrospective Examination of Treatment Initiation and Retention.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of the Communities That HEAL intervention on initiation, retention, and linkage to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD): A cluster randomized wait-list controlled trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- HEALing Communities Study: Data measures for supporting a community-based intervention to reduce opioid overdose deaths.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Associations Between State Policies Facilitating Telehealth and Buprenorphine Episode Initiation and Duration Early in the COVID Pandemic : State Telehealth Policies and Buprenorphine.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Medicare Beneficiary Receipt of Methadone by Drive Time to Opioid Treatment Programs.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Buprenorphine prescribing practices for older adults in 2019 and 2020.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Observational
- Receipt of medications for opioid use disorder among rural and urban veterans health administration patients.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- Real-World Dispensing of Buprenorphine in California during Prepandemic and Pandemic Periods.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Trends in Opioid Use Disorder Outpatient Treatment and Telehealth Utilization Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2024Article
- Measuring time in buprenorphine treatment stages among people with HIV and opioid use disorder by retention definition and its association with cocaine and hazardous alcohol use.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDuring the COVID pandemic, overall buprenorphine treatment appeared to remain relatively stable, despite some studies suggesting a decrease in patients starting buprenorphine. There is a paucity of empirical information regarding patterns of buprenorphine treatment during the pandemic.
objectiveTo better understand the patterns of buprenorphine episodes during the pandemic and how those patterns compared to pre-pandemic patterns.
designPharmacy claims representing approximately 92% of all prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.
participantsIndividuals filling buprenorphine prescriptions indicated for treatment of opioid use disorder. MAIN MEASURES: The number of active, starting, and ending buprenorphine treatment episodes March 13 to December 1, 2020, and the expected number of such episodes in 2020 based on the growth in treatment episodes from March 13 to December 1, 2019. KEY
resultsThe observed number of active buprenorphine episodes in December 2020 was comparable to the expected number, but new treatment episodes starting between March 13 and December 1, 2020, were 17.2% fewer than expected based on the 2019 experience. Similarly, the number of episodes that ended between March 13 and December 1, 2020, was 16.0% fewer than expected. Decreases from expected episode starts and ends occurred throughout the period but were greatest in the 2 months after the declaration of the public health emergency. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Beneath the apparent stability of buprenorphine patient numbers during the pandemic, the flow of individuals receiving buprenorphine treatment changed substantially. Our findings shed light on how policy changes meant to support buprenorphine prescribing influenced prescribing dynamics during that period, suggesting that while policy efforts may have been successful in maintaining existing patients in treatment, that success did not extend to individuals not yet in treatment.
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