A study conducted by Ophelia, an opioid addiction care provider, found that telehealth-based, medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder showed higher patient retention rates than in-person care.
The study's findings, published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse in March 2023, showed that telehealth-based treatment had comparable or better retention rates than in-person care, with no significant association found between sex, race/ethnicity, state or rurality in retention rates, according to Cision PR Newswire. Researchers said the results showed the potential for telehealth treatment for opioid use in remote areas.
"Living in a health care desert, lacking financial resources or grappling with stigma should not be barriers to getting life-saving treatment for opioid use disorder," Dr. Arthur Robin Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Ophelia, told Cision PR Newswire. "These study findings, published by a widely respected addictive disorder journal, are another step forward in proving what we already know: Telehealth-based, medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder is highly effective in reducing overdoses and preventing relapse."
According to the study, patients receiving buprenorphine through a telehealth treatment platform had higher 180-day and 365-day retention rates than a previously studied population of in-person patients. The study, conducted in New York and Pennsylvania between April 2021 and September 2022, involved 1,378 patients, about 58% living in Pennsylvania, and 42% residing in New York.
The rural-urban split of telehealth patients between the two states was 21% and 79%, respectively. Among those, 59% were male, and the average age of the population was 35.6 years. The study revealed that the 180-day treatment retention rate for the group was 56%, while among a subset studied for 365 days, the retention rate was 48%.
Medication-assisted treatment has shown to help reduce overdoses by 76% and cut emergency room visits by 32%, according to Cision PR Newswire. Cravings, withdrawal symptoms and total cost of care was reduced by $10,000 per patient per year. Despite the proven efficacy of medications like buprenorphine, many opioid abuse patients in the U.S. can't get treatment due to various barriers such as transportation, stigma, confidentiality concerns, costs and workforce shortages, Ophelia reported.
Telehealth-based therapy could help address those barriers and increase access to medication for more patients, but more research is needed to determine best practices, the study concluded.
