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During the COVID pandemic, when take-home methadone treatment for opioid use disorder expanded, adverse outcomes did not increase. In contrast, the percentage of accidental overdoses related to methadone treatment is on the decline. As a provider of Medications for Addiction Treatment (MAT) Services, Tarzana Treatment Centers (TTC) underlines this recent data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Indeed, methadone treatment expansion is not associated with an increase in adverse outcomes for patients. Since access to methadone, a medication to treat opioid use disorder was expanded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the expansion was to allow more patients to take home doses instead of visiting a clinic daily. While drug overdose deaths, both with and without methadone, increased in March 2020, deaths involving methadone were on the decline.

Reduction in Methadone Treatment Overdoses

Published in JAMA Psychiatry, this study is a collaborative effort by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such findings are surprising because of the significant increase in drug overdose deaths during the same period. In addition, opioids are responsible for most of these overdoses.

The rise in overdoses is a result of the increase in the drug supply of illicit fentanyl. In 2021, the CDC estimates that more than 107,000 people (about the seating capacity of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum) died of a drug overdose. Incredibly, 75% of those deaths directly result from opioid use, misuse, and abuse. Thus, a rise in access to MAT Services makes sense to stem this deadly tide.

According to NIDA Director and senior author Nora Volkow, M.D., “Treatment is an essential tool to stop the addiction and overdose crises, but it is vastly underused. This evidence adds significant weight to the argument that effective treatment for substance use disorders should be offered in an accessible and practical way that works for people who need it.”

Opioid-Related Deaths and Methadone Treatment

To assess the impact of the COVID-19 methadone treatment policy changes, investigators examine data from January 2019 through August 2021. The CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, a national mortality database, is the source of this data. Researchers found that opioid-related non-methadone-involved overdose deaths surged by over a thousand deaths per month during the pandemic. In contrast, after the take-home policy expansion, methadone deaths declined. There was a drop in methadone-related deaths from 4.5% of overdose deaths in January 2019 to 3.2% in August 2021.

Mirroring findings from smaller studies, the national data provides evidence that the MAT services program does not contribute to increases in methadone-involved overdose deaths. These findings include the take-home methadone policy expansion established in March 2020.

“The goal of health policy should be to promote health and reduce harm, and our goal in conducting studies like this is to ensure that those policies are based on the best available scientific evidence,” explains lead author Christopher M. Jones, Pharm.D., Dr.P.H., acting director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC. “Projects like this also underscore the important findings that can emerge when we collaborate across agencies under a common mission, as we continue to work together to address the overdose crisis.”

Tarzana Treatment Centers and MAT Services

Given the recent findings, TTC is grateful for the opportunity to save lives by offering MAT Services. As a forerunner in methadone treatment and medications for addiction treatment, TTC focuses on building the groundwork for long-term recovery. Please contact us today to learn more about how TTC can help you or a loved one recover from opioid use disorder.