Buprenorphine Treatment Duration and Adherence Among Youth and Subsequent Health Outcomes

OBJECTIVES: It is unclear how long youth with opioid use disorder (OUD) should continue taking buprenorphine, and what adherence they should achieve. We identified patterns of duration/adherence and assessed associations with subsequent overdose, emergency department (ED) use, and hospitalization. METHODS: This retrospective cohort analysis used 2014-2022 data from the Massachusetts Public Health Data Warehouse. We identified youth aged 13 to 26 years initiating buprenorphine and used group-based trajectory modeling to categorize youth into duration/adherence trajectories over 12 months. Using multivariable Cox regression, we examined associations between trajectories and time to fatal/nonfatal opioid overdose, all-cause ED use, and all-cause hospitalization during the subsequent 12-month period. RESULTS: Among 11 649 Massachusetts youth initiating buprenorphine, most were aged 21 years or older (89.0%), male (60.3%), white non-Hispanic (85.9%), and enrolled in Medicaid (55.4%). We identified 4 patterns of medication use: (1) high adherence for 12 months (23.7%); (2) low adherence for 12 months (27.5%); (3) discontinuation in 3 to 9 months (16.4%); and (4) discontinuation in less than 3 months (32.5%). Trajectories included 580 (5.0%) and 774 (6.6%) youth switching to methadone and naltrexone, respectively. Compared with high adherence for 12 months, overdose risk was higher with low adherence for 12 months (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.46; 95% CI, 1.24-1.73), discontinuation in 3 to 9 months (aHR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.52-2.17), and discontinuation in less than 3 months (aHR, 1.76; 95% CI 1.50-2.06). Compared with high adherence, low adherence and discontinuation in less than 3 months had higher risk of ED use, and all other trajectories had higher risk of hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: Medication adherence may prevent overdose, ED use, and hospitalization. Strategies to increase treatment duration/adherence likely avert harm.