Finlay, A. K., Harris, A. H., Rosenthal, J., Blue-Howells, J., Clark, S., McGuire, J., Timko, C., Frayne, S. M., Smelson, D., Oliva, E., & Binswanger, I. (2016). Receipt of pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder by justice-involved U.S. Veterans Health Administration patients. Drug and alcohol dependence, 160, 222–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.01.013 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26832998/ 

This retrospective cohort study of veterans with an opioid use disorder diagnosis examined receipt of pharmacotherapy in the 1-year period following diagnosis as a function of justice involvement, adjusting for patient and facility characteristics. After logistic regression analysis, the authors discovered that compared to veterans not justice-involved, those prison-involved had 0.75 lower adjusted odds (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.65–0.87) of receiving pharmacotherapy whereas jail/court-involved veterans did not have significantly different adjusted odds. They conclude that targeted efforts to increase receipt of pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder among veterans exiting prison is needed. 

Bottom Line: This study found that less than 1/3 of veterans involved in the criminal justice system received MOUD treatment (27% who were prison-involved and 34% who were jail or court-involved).