ReviewCureus2026
Emergency Department-Initiated Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder: A Systematic Review of Treatment Engagement and Emergency Care Utilization.
Review in Cureus, 2026. 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
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Emergency departments (EDs) represent a critical point of contact for individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). Initiation of buprenorphine, a medication for OUD, in the ED has been proposed as a strategy to improve engagement in ongoing treatment and reduce recurrent emergency care utilization; however, evidence across these outcomes has not been comprehensively synthesized. This systematic review aimed to qualitatively summarize the effectiveness of ED-initiated buprenorphine in improving treatment engagement and reducing subsequent ED utilization among adults with OUD. A systematic search of major biomedical databases identified randomized and observational studies evaluating buprenorphine initiation in the ED and reporting outcomes related to treatment engagement or return ED visits. Data were extracted using a standardized approach, and methodological quality was assessed using a validated appraisal tool. Due to heterogeneity in study designs and outcome measures, findings were synthesized qualitatively. Across included studies, ED-initiated buprenorphine was consistently associated with higher rates of engagement in OUD treatment within 30 days compared with referral or brief intervention alone. Evidence regarding reductions in subsequent ED utilization was mixed, with some studies demonstrating fewer opioid-related or all-cause ED return visits and others showing no significant differences, particularly over shorter follow-up periods. Social determinants of health, including housing stability, insurance status, and race, appeared to modify outcomes, and the presence of adjunctive ED-based services such as behavioral counseling and naloxone distribution was variably associated with improved engagement and reduced ED use. Overall, ED-initiated buprenorphine is an effective intervention for improving early treatment engagement among patients with OUD, while its impact on subsequent ED utilization appears context-dependent and influenced by social factors and the availability of supportive follow-up care.
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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.