Patients who are prescribed higher daily doses of the medication buprenorphine for opioid use disorder are significantly more likely to stay in treatment. Those on 17 to 24 milligrams averaged 190 days in care compared to 90 days for those on 8 milligrams or less. Yet Black patients are less likely than white patients to receive the higher doses.
Those are the key findings of a study my colleagues and I conducted with 5,000 adults enrolled in Medicaid in Philadelphia who are prescribed buprenorphine to treat their opioid use disorder.
