Drug treatment for addiction is shorter for black and Hispanic patients, study finds

Analysis of 15 years of prescribing data showed racial disparities are widening.

Researchers have long known that racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to be prescribed life-saving drug treatment options than white people.

But even when black and Hispanic patients start a prescription for buprenorphine — the most popular drug to help recovering people fight food cravings — their typical treatment duration is shorter than that of white patients, according to new data analysis released Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry.

The analysis, which sorted 15 years of prescribing data by race and ethnicity, also found that the percentage of minority patients who stayed so Us buprenorphine for more than 180 days - the minimum recommended duration - was significantly lower than that of white patients.

Racial and ethnic gaps in treatment duration have been steadily widening, especially in recent years, the researchers said. The divide reflects the structural barriers – such as employment or inconsistent medical care – that some groups face even after beginning to work to recover.

The new analysis is part of an ongoing research project that aims to "drill down the granular data for really specific measures of effectiveness - like treatment duration - that could set the stage for possibly filling in the gaps," said Mohammad Jalali. , assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who co-authored the article with several colleagues.

Medication treatment of opioid use disorder has made debated in the United States because drugs like buprenorphine (also known by the brand name Suboxone) and methadone are also opioids. Some officials fear the approach could encourage drug use.

Researchers say the drugs, which do not produce a high in prescribed doses, are essential for Satisfy cravings and reduce withdrawal symptoms as patients seek to recover from addiction. The drugs have been shown to at least halve the death rate in people who are addicted to opioids.

Duration of treatment is a useful measure of the quality of care of a patient, the study authors said that longer treatments, particularly those lasting more than six months, are associated with better long-term clinical outcomes.

But many available research findings on addiction and treatment use data that combine racial and ethnic groups, "a chronic problem in the literature," Dr. Jalali said.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"If you only look at aggregated data, you'll miss stuff," he added.

In an effort to develop an analysis that examined buprenorphine treatment over time in these groups, the researchers used the long-term prescription data from IQVIA, a health information technology company, to study a random sample of 11 million buprenorphine prescriptions filled between January 2006 and December 2020.