Long-term treatment outcomes in a First Nations high school population with opioid use disorder

To assess for long-term positive effects of buprenorphine treatment (BT) on opioid use disorder (OUD) at a Nishnawbe Aski Nation high school clinic.

Postgraduation telephone survey of high school students between March 2017 and January 2018.

Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School in Thunder Bay, Ont.

All 44 students who had received BT in the high school clinic during its operation from 2011 to 2013 were eligible to participate.

Current substance use, BT status, and social and employment status.

Thirty-eight of the 44 students who had received BT in the high school clinic were located and approached; 32 consented to participate in the survey. A descriptive analysis of the surveyed indicators was undertaken. Almost two-thirds (n = 20, 62.5%) of the cohort had graduated from high school, more than one-third (n = 12, 37.5%) were employed full time, and most (n = 29, 90.6%) rated their health as "good" or "OK." A greater percentage of participants who continued taking BT after high school (n = 19, 61.3%) were employed full time (n = 8, 42.1% vs n = 4, 33.3%) and were abstinent from alcohol (n = 12, 63.2% vs n = 4, 33.3%). Participants still taking BT were significantly more likely to have obtained addiction counseling in the past year than those participants not in treatment (n = 9, 47.4% vs n = 1, 8.3%; P = .0464).

The study results suggest that offering OUD treatment to youth in the form of BT in a high school clinic might be an effective strategy for promoting positive long-term health and social outcomes. Clinical treatment guidelines currently recommend long-term opioid agonist treatment as the treatment of choice for OUD in the general population; they should consider adding youth to the population that might also benefit.