Only One In Twenty Justice-Referred Adults In Specialty Treatment For Opioid Use Receive Methadone Or Buprenorphine

People in the US criminal justice system experience high rates of opioid use disorder, overdose, and other adverse outcomes. Expanding treatment is a key strategy for addressing the opioid epidemic, but little is known about whether the criminal justice system refers people to the highest standard o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health Affairs 2017-12, Vol.36 (12), p.2046-2053
Main Authors: Krawczyk, Noa, Picher, Caroline E., Feder, Kenneth A., Saloner, Brendan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Alcohol
Buprenorphine
Clients
Courts
Crime
Criminal justice
Criminal justice system
Datasets
Drug abuse
Drug addiction
Drug overdose
Drug therapy
Drug use
Drunk driving
Epidemics
Health care policy
Health services
Help seeking behavior
Hepatitis
Heroin
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Imprisonment
Judicial system
Limited partnerships
Mental disorders
Mental health care
Methadone
Narcotics
Opioids
Overdose
Parole & probation
Regression analysis
Substance abuse treatment
Substance use disorder
Systematic review
Variables
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Summary:People in the US criminal justice system experience high rates of opioid use disorder, overdose, and other adverse outcomes. Expanding treatment is a key strategy for addressing the opioid epidemic, but little is known about whether the criminal justice system refers people to the highest standard of treatment: the use of the opioid agonist therapies methadone or buprenorphine. We used 2014 data from the national Treatment Episode Data Set to examine the use of agonist treatment among justice-involved people referred to specialty treatment for opioid use disorder. Only 4.6 percent of justice-referred clients received agonist treatment, compared to 40.9 percent of those referred by other sources. Of all criminal justice sources, courts and diversionary programs were least likely to refer people to agonist treatment. Our findings suggest that an opportunity is being missed to promote effective, evidence-based care for justice-involved people who seek treatment for opioid use disorder.
ISSN:0278-2715
1544-5208
DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0890