Only 1 in 4 Adults Needing Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Received Medications
Black and Latino adults less likely to receive any treatment
by Shannon Firth, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
June 27, 2024
Only about a quarter of adults who needed treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) received recommended medications, survey data showed.
In 2022, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found that 3.7% of U.S. adults — approximately 9.4 million people — needed OUD treatment. Of those, 55.2% received any treatment, and 25.1% of adults received medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), reported Deborah Dowell, MD, of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in Rockville, Maryland, and co-authors in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report opens in a new tab or window (MMWR).
Many adults who needed OUD treatment by clinical criteria didn’t perceive the need for it (42.7%) or obtained treatment that did not include medication (30%), the authors noted
