Three-year retention in buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder nationally in the Veterans Health Administration.

Background: Buprenorphine has become the major treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) but data on long treatment term retention and its correlates are sparse.

Methods: All veterans with OUD treated in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities nationally in fiscal year (FY) 2012, and who began treatment with buprenorphine as indicated by a first prescription after the first 60 days of the year were identified with the date of and their last prescription from FY 2012-2015. Veterans were classified into four groups based on time from first to last prescription: (0-30 days, 31-365 days; 1-3 years; and more than 3 years). These groups were compared on socio-demographic, diagnoses and service, and psychotropic drug use. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify variables independently associated with retention in buprenorphine treatment.

Results: Veterans newly started on buprenorphine (n = 3,151) were retained in treatment for a mean duration of 1.68 years (standard deviation [SD] 1.23), with 61.60% (n = 1,941) retained for more than a year and 31.83% (n = 1,003) for more than 3 years. Cox proportion hazards model showed that only black race (Hazards ratio [HR] 1.26; standard error [SE] .06; p.0003), the Charlson index (HR 1.03; SE .01; p.0132) and emergency room visits during FY 2012 (HR 1.03; SE .01; p < .0001) were the only available variables independently associated higher odds of buprenorphine discontinuation.

Conclusions: Buprenorphine retention was substantial among veterans treated in VHA, but few individual characteristics correlated with retention.

Scientific Significance: Future research focused on identifying further correlates of treatment retention is required to help devise interventions to improve treatment continuation. (Am J Addict 2017;26:572-580).