Pitt Studies Highlight Access to Treatment in a Health Affairs Special Issue on Opioid Use Disorder

In a study of one-year health outcomes for treatment-court participants in Indiana from January, 2018 through June, 2021, participants were 83% less likely to die, 83% less likely to call emergency medical services and 34% less likely to visit an emergency department, compared to nonparticipants. “Treatment court is a public health-driven alternative to incarceration for individuals sentenced for substance-related crimes. Through referrals to education, support groups, medications for opioid use disorder and other interventions, these programs ultimately save lives,” said senior author Jeanine Buchanich, Ph.D., vice dean and associate professor of biostatistics and health data science at Pitt Public Health.

In a study examining impacts of the growing share of methadone clinics that have been acquired by private equity firms, researchers assessed trends in methadone shipments as well as rates of fatal overdoses in areas where programs had been acquired by these firms from 2006 to 2019. They found that overall supply of treatment had not increased, and mortality rates remained unchanged. “This raises public health concerns, as some private equity-backed firms have lobbied against efforts to expand methadone access beyond opioid treatment programs, often claiming that they are already improving access,” said J. Travis Donahoe, Ph.D., assistant professor of health policy and management at Pitt Public Health and senior author of the study. 

In a study comparing the effects of state-level restrictions for methadone clinics in 2019, researchers found that zip codes with more permissive regulations had more than twice as many methadone clinics and methadone shipments, compared to neighboring zip codes with tighter restrictions across state lines. “This shows that states have a powerful lever to expand local access by relaxing overly burdensome rules on where and how methadone can be delivered,” said Donahoe, lead author of the study, which was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse (#K01DA055758).