Changes in Recovery Capital Among Patients Receiving Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in a Telehealth Setting.

BACKGROUND

Medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder (MOUD) such as buprenorphine are the most effective treatment available for OUD; yet, beyond drug testing results and retention in care, systematically measured clinical outcomes have proven elusive. There is growing interest in integrating systematic monitoring of patient-reported outcomes and measurement-based care as strategies to improve patients' success in treatment.

METHODS

We analyzed changes in recovery capital assessed via the Brief Assessment of Recovery Capital (BARC-10) from baseline to 30-120 days post-intake among patients initiating buprenorphine treatment from May to October 2023 at Ophelia, a telehealth MOUD provider, who were retained for ≥90 days. Differences in baseline characteristics were assessed between patients with and without high "remission-predictive" baseline scores (≥47) using chi-squared and

RESULTS

In all, 791 patients initiated treatment during the study period, 742 (93.8%) of whom had a baseline BARC-10 score, 542 (73.0%) of whom were retained in treatment for ≥90 days, and 477 of whom (88.0%) had a follow-up BARC-10 score and represent the analysis sample. Older patients, those not requiring buprenorphine induction, and those not using heroin or fentanyl at intake were more likely to have remission-predictive baseline BARC-10 scores (

CONCLUSIONS

Most patients had increased or sustained already high levels of recovery capital, an established predictor of sustained remission. Further research is required to better understand variability across patients and how it may relate to long-term outcomes.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declarations of Conflicting InterestsDuring the conduct of the study, authors CR, AB, and ARW received compensation in the form of equity, salary, consulting fees, and/or travel expenses from Ophelia Health, Inc., a telehealth provider for opioid use disorder and the funding source that supported this work.