Observational studySubstance abuse2023
National Trends in Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder From 2007 to 2018.
Observational study in Substance abuse, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Barriers and facilitators to scaling up medications for opioid use disorder in Kentucky: qualitative perspectives of treatment organization staff.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2025Trial
- Medicaid Prior Authorization and Discontinuation of Buprenorphine.Journal of addiction medicine · 2026Article
- Addiction care outcomes between insured and state opioid response grant-funded patients in a Medicaid non-expansion state.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2026Article
- Review
- Statewide trends in access to medications for opioid use disorder (moud) among adolescents with opioid use disorders in Indiana.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Scaling up medications for opioid use disorder in Kentucky: Qualitative perspectives of treatment organizations.Research square · 2024Article
- Barriers and Facilitators to Using a Clinical Decision Support Tool for Opioid Use Disorder in Primary Care.Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM · 2024Article
- Declining but Pronounced State-Level Disparities in Prescription Opioid Distribution in the United States.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Post-operative pain control in patients on buprenorphine or methadone for opioid use disorder.Journal of opioid managementArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBuprenorphine is a key medication to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). Since its approval in 2002, buprenorphine access has grown markedly, spurred by major federal and state policy changes. This study characterizes buprenorphine treatment episodes during 2007 to 2018 with respect to payer, provider specialty, and patient demographics.
methodsIn this observational cohort study, IQVIA Real World pharmacy claims data were used to characterize trends in buprenorphine treatment episodes across four time periods: 2007-2009, 2010-2012, 2013-2015, and 2016-2018.
resultsIn total, we identified more than 4.1 million buprenorphine treatment episodes among 2 540 710 unique individuals. The number of episodes doubled from 652 994 in 2007-2009 to 1 331 980 in 2016-2018. Our findings indicate that the payer landscape changed dramatically, with the most pronounced growth observed for Medicaid (increased from 17% of episodes in 2007-2009 to 37% of episodes in 2016-2018), accompanied by relative declines for both commercial insurance (declined from 35 to 21%) and self-pay (declined from 27 to 11%). Adult primary care providers (PCPs) were the dominant prescribers throughout the study period. The number of episodes among adults older than 55 increased more than 3-fold from 2007-2009 to 2016-2018. In contrast, youth under age 18 experienced an absolute decline in buprenorphine treatment episodes. Buprenorphine episodes increased in length from 2007-2018, particularly among adults over age 45.
conclusionsOur findings demonstrate that the U.S. experienced clear growth in buprenorphine treatment-particularly for older adults and Medicaid beneficiaries-reflecting some key health policy and implementation success stories. Yet, since the prevalence of OUD and fatal overdose rate have also approximately doubled during this period, the observed growth in buprenorphine treatment did not demonstrably impact the pronounced treatment gap. To date, only a minority of individuals with OUD currently receive treatment, indicating continued need for systemic efforts to equitably improve treatment uptake.
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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.