The Treatment Of Opioid Use Disorder Varies From State To State

(CTN News) – In recent years, Opioid Use Disorder overdose deaths have risen dramatically, and treatment has not been consistent throughout the country.

According to a new national study of Medicaid, which covers health care for more than 90 million Americans, less than half of the people diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) received drugs to treat the disorder. You can read the full article here.

An original study entitled “State- and County-Level Geographic Variations in Opioid Use Disorder, Medication Treatment, and Opioid-Related Overdose Among Medicaid Enrollees” was published in the JAMA Health Forum.

Adults in 46 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico were included in the study for 2016, 2017, and 2018.

In a news release, lead author Stephan Lindner, PhD, stated, “We fail people when we do not provide adequate treatment to people with opioid use disorders enrolled in Medicaid.”

Professor Lindner is a member of Oregon Health and Science University’s Center for Effective Health Systems.

It is estimated that about 10 million people misused opioids in 2019 and that the number of deaths increased from 51,000 that year to 81,000 in 2021. “Opioid use remains an urgent public health problem,” but “the severity of the crisis varies substantially across the nation,” the authors noted.

Approximately 40% of Americans with opioid use disorders receive Medicaid coverage, but there is limited research on the treatment of the disorder, according to the study.

Coauthor Dennis McCarty, PhD, stated in a news release that evidence strongly suggests medication should be the nearly universal treatment for individuals suffering from opioid disorder.

McCarty is professor emeritus of public health at the OHSU School of Medicine and the OHSU-Portland State University School of Public Health.

There is a wide variation in access to opioid use disorder medications, according to the researchers.

In Opioid Use Disorder Medicaid enrollees, 55.2% were treated with medication.

Medicaid beneficiaries with opioid use disorders in some Northeast states received buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone, three medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating opioid addiction. Contrary to this, fewer than 25% of Medicaid recipients in the Midwest and the South received one of the treatment medications for opioid use disorder.

Across states, medication treatment rates ranged from 17.7% in Kansas to 82.8% in Maine. Among the researchers’ home states, Oregon came in roughly in the middle, with a rate of 61%.

According to the researchers, patients may face personal barriers that prevent them from seeking treatment, such as stigma, shame, or lack of trust in the health care system.

As well as structural barriers, such as a lack of personnel or training, there may also be individual barriers.

State policies may also influence the prevalence of opioid use disorders, treatment, and overdoses. One example is Medicaid reimbursement rates, but the researchers also recommended that primary care physicians, psychologists, nurses, and other clinicians be made aware of the importance of recognizing OUD and the effectiveness of medication through educational outreach.

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