The gold standard in opioid addiction treatment, buprenorphine, is drastically underprescribed despite still-climbing opioid overdose deaths, according to a new study. Black patients receive it less often than others.
The study, published May 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine, used insurance claims data and found that from 2016 to 2019, about 20 percent of those diagnosed with opioid use disorder received buprenorphine, despite repeated visits to providers. Rates were generally even lower for methadone.
"Racial and ethnic differences [...] were substantial and did not change over time," according to the study.
Within six months after an overdose or other high-risk event, white patients received buprenorphine 80 percent more often than Black patients, and 25 percent more often than Hispanic or Latino patients, the study said. Researchers found similar racial disparities in naltrexone prescriptions.
The rescue medication naloxone was also prescribed to white patients at far higher rates than Black patients, according to the study. White patients were also far more likely than Black patients to live near opioid treatment providers and to remain in treatment, according to the study.