Abstract
Purpose
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended that pediatricians consider
medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for adolescents with severe opioid use disorders.
Little is known about adolescents' current use of MAT.
Methods
We use data on episodes of specialty treatment for heroin or opioid use (n = 139,092)
from a database of publicly funded treatment programs in the U.S. We compare the proportions
of adolescents and adults who received MAT, first using unadjusted comparison of proportions,
then using logistic regression to adjust for potential confounders.
Results
Only 2.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4%–3.7%) of adolescents in treatment for
heroin received MAT, as compared to 26.3% (95% CI, 26.0%–26.6%) of adults. Only .4%
(95% CI, .2%–.7%) of adolescents in treatment for prescription opioids received MAT,
as compared to 12.0% (95% CI, 11.7%–12.2%) of adults. Regression-adjusted results
were qualitatively similar.
Conclusions
Regulatory changes and expansions of Medicaid/CHIP coverage for MAT may be needed
to improve MAT access.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 28, 2017
Accepted:
December 28,
2016
Received:
September 30,
2016
Footnotes
Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.
