Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in County Jails - Outcomes after Release

In 2019, seven county correctional facilities (jails) in Massachusetts initiated pilot programs to provide all Food and Drug Administration-approved medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD).

This observational study used linked state data to examine postrelease MOUD receipt, overdose, death, and reincarceration among persons with probable opioid use disorder (OUD) in carceral settings who did or did not receive MOUD from these programs from September 1, 2019, through December 31, 2020. Log-binomial and proportional-hazards models were adjusted for propensity-score weights and baseline covariates that remained imbalanced after propensity-score weighting.

The study cohort included 6400 persons with probable OUD: 2711 (42.4%) received MOUD in jail and 3689 (57.6%) did not. Among persons treated with MOUD in jail, 67.9% received buprenorphine, 25.7% received methadone, and 6.5% received naltrexone. Treated persons were more likely than those not treated to be White (75.4% vs. 58.1%), to be sentenced (31.6% vs. 13.2%), to be receiving MOUD at jail entry (73.7% vs. 17.1%), and to receive MOUD during the first 30 days after community release (60.2% vs. 17.6%; adjusted relative risk, 1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.38 to 1.50). Only 50.4% of MOUD recipients engaged in MOUD treatment for 75% of the first 90 days after release, and 57.5% were receiving MOUD at 180 days. Receipt of MOUD in jail, as compared with no such receipt, was associated with lower postrelease risks of fatal overdose (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.64), nonfatal overdose (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.68 to 0.85), death from any cause (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.35 to 0.56), and reincarceration (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81 to 0.94). The incidence of hospitalizations did not differ substantially between the two groups.

Receipt of MOUD in jail was associated with an increased likelihood of postrelease MOUD initiation and decreased risks of overdose, death from any cause, and reincarceration. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and others.).