Drug and Alcohol Dependence: Are Relaxed Telehealth and Take-Home Medication Regulations for Treating Opioid Use Disorder Cost-Effective?

Drug and Alcohol Dependence: Are Relaxed Telehealth and Take-Home Medication Regulations for Treating Opioid Use Disorder Cost-Effective?

A multidisciplinary team of Stanford researchers has found that relaxed guidelines for opioid use disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic were likely not only effective, but cost-effective as well. The authors used a model-based analysis to simulate a cohort of 100,000 individuals receiving medications for opioid use disorder both in the presence and in absence of the proposed regulatory relaxations. The authors note that multiple studies have shown that telemedicine has the same or better chances in retaining OUD patients compared to in-person buprenorphine treatment. See the Stanford University press release here.