Hospital Addiction Consultation Service Aids Opioid Use Disorder

WEDNESDAY, April 16, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A hospital-based addiction consultation service can improve receipt of evidence-based treatment for people with opioid use disorder (OUD), according to a study published online April 7 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Allison J. Ober, Ph.D., from the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, and colleagues tested whether an addiction-focused consultation service, the Substance Use Treatment and Recovery Team (START), increases medications for OUD initiation during hospitalization and linkage to follow-up care after discharge. The analysis included 325 participants randomly assigned to START (164 individuals) or usual care (161 individuals).

The researchers found that START participants were more likely than usual care participants to initiate medications for OUD (naltrexone, buprenorphine, or methadone) during hospitalization (57.3 versus 26.7 percent; adjusted risk ratio, 2.10) and to link to OUD care after discharge (72.0 versus 48.1 percent; adjusted risk ratio, 1.49).

“By addressing gaps in inpatient care, the hospital-based addiction-focused consultation service presented in this randomized clinical trial improved receipt of evidence-based treatment for people with OUD in the hospital and linkage to treatment after discharge,” the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to Bexson Biomedical and Workit Health.

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