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Individuals who use opioids and methamphetamines show significantly lower rates of treatment retention

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Brian Leroux
Brian Leroux

In response to the opioid crisis there has been a national effort to expand treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) with buprenorphine. But with methamphetamine emerging as an additional public health threat a question arises about treating OUD patients who also use methamphetamines.

UW Biostatistics professor Brian Leroux was part of a recent study that examined this issue and found that individuals receiving buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorders who were also users of methamphetamines at baseline had significantly lower rates of treatment retention compared with non-users of methamphetamines.