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Most adults in treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) report first use before age 25; hence, providing effective treatment to young people is important. Investigators reviewed a large commercial health insurance database from 2001 to 2014 to study receipt of pharmacotherapy (buprenorphine, naltrexone, or both) among the 21,000 patients aged 13–25 years with an ICD-9 diagnosis consistent with OUD (0.2% of enrollees).
Of these youth, 66% were male, mean age was 21 years, and 80% were from predominantly non-Hispanic white neighborhoods. Only 27% received pharmacotherapy within 6 months of their first diagnosis. The proportion receiving treatment rose from 3% in 2002 to 32% in 2009 but then fell to 28% by 2014. From 2002 to 2010, buprenorphine …