ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2025
Implementation opportunities for optimizing retention on buprenorphine treatment for people with opioid use disorder in West Virginia.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWest Virginia leads the U.S. in overdose-related deaths, which can be decreased through buprenorphine treatment of opioid use disorder. Expanding buprenorphine benefits requires retaining patients in treatment. We explored prescribing real-world practices that affect retention.
methodsWe analyzed data from the West Virginia Prescription Drug Monitoring Program for individuals newly initiating buprenorphine in 2022. The primary outcome was time to treatment discontinuation. Baseline covariates included age, sex, and payment method. Dosage and days supplied were assessed at baseline to evaluate treatment initiation practices and as time-dependent measures to examine longitudinal patterns. Proportional hazards models with gamma frailty were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs).
resultsThe 6686 individuals who initiated buprenorphine were in their late thirties (mean 37.8 years) and mostly male (54.3 %). Relative to lower initial dosages (<8mg) and a shorter initial supply (<7 days), higher initial dosages of 8-15mg (aHR=0.75, 95 %CI:0.68-0.82) and ≥ 16mg (aHR=0.67, 95 %CI:0.61-0.74) and longer initial prescription of 7-13 days (aHR=0.75; 95 %CI:0.68-0.81), 14-27 days (aHR=0.43; 95 %CI:0.35-0.52) and, especially ≥ 28 days (aHR=0.31; 95 %CI:0.26-0.37), significantly reduced discontinuation risk (p < 0.001). In the time-dependent models with dosages and days of medication supplied changing over time, the protective effect significantly increased for higher dosages (≥16mg: aHR=0.45; 95 %CI:0.40-0.50) and number of days supplied (≥28 days: aHR=0.10; 95 %CI:0.10-0.11), p < 0.0001. Discontinuation was higher for younger persons, males, and those paying out-of-pocket; public insurance reduced the risk.
conclusionHigher buprenorphine doses and extended take-home dosing substantially improved retention, especially at initiation. To combat West Virginia's opioid crisis, clinicians should adjust prescribing practices accordingly.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.