Impact of Office-based Opioid Treatment on Emergency Visits and Hospitalization in Adolescents with Opioid Use Disorder

Objective To determine if engagement in office-based opioid treatment decreases emergency department, urgent care visits, and hospitalizations for acute opioid-related events (OREs) among adolescents with opioid use disorder. Study design This retrospective cohort study identified all emergent and outpatient visits among adolescents, age 10-19 years, referred for office-based opioid treatment between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2016. Patients were dichotomized into 2 cohorts: those who did and did not engage in office-based opioid treatment. The primary end point was the difference in the proportion of visits over the study period for acute OREs between cohorts and within the office-based opioid treatment cohort before and after referral. Secondary end points assessed change in the proportion of outpatient visits for treatment unrelated to opioid use disorder. Results Four hundred five emergent and outpatient visits were identified: 285 (70.4%) in the office-based opioid treatment cohort and 120 (29.6%) in the non–office-based opioid treatment cohort. After office-based opioid treatment engagement, 27.8% of visits in the office-based opioid treatment cohort were for acute OREs vs 80.8% in the non–office-based opioid treatment cohort (OR, 0.092; 95% CI, 0.052-0.160; P  Conclusions The absolute decrease in emergent visits for acute OREs was 53% in adolescents engaged in office-based opioid treatment, representing a relative decrease of 65.6% compared with adolescents not engaged. An analysis of visits before and after office-based opioid treatment demonstrated similar decreases, suggesting that office-based opioid treatment has a significant impact in decreasing acute OREs in the adolescent population.