Daily medication prescribed for opioid use disorder is more cost-effective than monthly injections to treat the disorder, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.
The study, conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, evaluated the total costs associated with two drugs prescribed for opioid use disorder.
The drugs in the study, buprenorphine-naloxone and extended-release naltrexone, are FDA-approved medications that help prevent relapse in patients with opioid use disorder who are no longer consuming opioids.
This cost-effectiveness study was conducted with a randomized controlled trial comparing the clinical effectiveness of the two drugs among 570 U.S. adults.
The researchers found monthly injections of extended-release naltrexone were $5,317 more costly to the healthcare sector, per person, on average than daily medication buprenorphine-naloxone. However, they found the drugs had similar clinical effectiveness, suggesting buprenorphine-naloxone should be the first-line treatment.
"[Buprenorphine-naloxone] was less costly, on average, than [extended-release naltrexone]; however, these two medications were similarly effective in terms of quality of life and time abstaining from opioids," said primary author Sean Murphy, PhD.