ReviewThe Lancet. Public health2023
Synthesising evidence of the effects of COVID-19 regulatory changes on methadone treatment for opioid use disorder: implications for policy.
Review in The Lancet. Public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 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
56 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 86 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Addiction Consult Services, Mortality, and Acute Care Utilization in Inpatients With Opioid Use Disorder: A Secondary Analysis of a Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Impact of COVID-19-related methadone regulatory flexibilities: views of state opioid treatment authorities and program staff.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2023Trial
- Adaption of a posttraumatic stress disorder intervention for patients who use stimulants and opioids in the opioid treatment programme setting.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Fentanyl purity and overdose decline: A reexamination of geographic trends.Science advances · 2026Article
- Emergency preparedness planning: lessons from COVID-19 and the opioid crisis in rural Ohio.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- "It's so much easier for them to just come to us": a qualitative study examining the implementation of mobile methadone treatment serving a residential SUD treatment program.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2026Article
- Fentanyl Purity and Overdose Decline: A Reexamination of Geographic Trends.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Envisioning a Humane and Accessible US Methadone Treatment System: Generating Policy and Practice Recommendations From the Liberate Methadone Movement.Substance use & addiction journal · 2026Article
- Integration of safer smoking equipment in U.S. syringe services programs: Qualitative insights from program staff.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of slow-release oral morphine versus other OAT regimens in key sub-populations: protocol for population-based target trial emulation.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Population-Level Health Benefits and Harms Associated With Buprenorphine/Naloxone vs Methadone.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- U.S. states opting out of expanded methadone take-home policies and associated mortality.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on methadone and buprenorphine prescriptions in England primary cares: an interrupted time series analysis.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Opioid Treatment Programs and Risks for COVID-19 Infections, Emergency Visits, and Hospitalizations.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Prevention and Management of Opioid use Disorder and Overdose in Adolescents and Young Adults.Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
- Article
- Medicaid Expansion Boosted Specialty Treatment Episodes For Substance Use Disorder In Expansion States, 2010-22.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2025Article
- Investigating heterogeneous effects of an expanded methadone access policy with opioid treatment program retention: a Rhode Island population-based retrospective cohort study.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Hepatitis C Treatment in Kentucky Medicaid Recipients with Concurrent Opioid Use Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As the USA faces a worsening overdose crisis, improving access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) remains a policy priority. Federal regulatory changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic substantially expanded flexibilities on take-home doses for methadone treatment for OUD. These changes have fuelled questions about the effect of new regulations on OUD outcomes and the potential effect on health of permanently integrating these flexibilities into treatment policy going forward. To aide US policy makers as they consider implementing permanent methadone regulatory changes, we conducted a review synthesising peer-reviewed research on the effect of the flexibilities of methadone take-home policies introduced during COVID-19 on methadone programme operations, OUD patient and provider experiences, and patient health outcomes. We interpret the findings in the context of the federal rule-making process and discuss avenues by which these findings can be incorporated and implemented into US policies on substance use treatment going forward.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.