Adolescent Residential Addiction Facilities Largely Do Not Provide Buprenorphine

WEDNESDAY, June 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Only one in four U.S. facilities offer buprenorphine for adolescent residential addiction treatment, according to a research letter published in the June 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Caroline King, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in Portland, and colleagues surveyed U.S. adolescent residential addiction treatment facilities (using a secret shopper approach) to assess treatments used for adolescents younger than 18 years seeking opioid use disorder treatment.

The researchers found that 45.2 percent of U.S. facilities provided residential treatment to patients younger than 18 years, of which 24.4 percent offered buprenorphine. Twelve facilities (7.5 percent) offered buprenorphine initiation but discontinued before discharge, 17 facilities (10.6 percent) initiated buprenorphine and offered ongoing treatment, and four facilities (2.5 percent) offered long-acting injectable buprenorphine. Most facilities treating youth (87.5 percent) had someone available who could prescribe medications for psychiatric comorbidities (e.g., depression). More than half of youth-treating facilities included family members in adolescent treatment (53.8 percent), but no other evidence-based treatment was used by more than one-third of facilities contacted.

"The average parent would need to call nine facilities on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Treatment Locator list to find one that offered buprenorphine and 29 to find one for an adolescent younger than 16 years," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to industry.

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