Health Affairs April 7, 2023
Patients, families, and payers often ask how soon those with opioid use disorder (OUD) can stop taking medications, such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, used to treat it. Three recent papers state that six months is the minimum recommended or adequate duration of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUDs), and the Pew Charitable Trust recently recommended that states track the percentage of people prescribed or dispensed MOUDs who take them for at least six months.
But is a minimum of six months of MOUD what should be recommended to patients, their families, and payers? A review of where the six-month figure came from, how it was designed to be used, and the level of evidence upon which it is based,...
Today's Sponsors
Today's Sponsor