Has the treatment gap for opioid use disorder narrowed in the U.S.?: a yearly assessment from 2010 to 2019
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The United States overdose crisis continues unabated. Despite efforts to increase capacity for treating opioid use disorder (OUD) in the U.S., how actual treatment receipt compares to need remains unclear. In this cross-sectional study, we estimate progress in addressing the gap between OUD prevalence and OUD treatment receipt at the national and state levels from 2010 to 2019. METHODS: We estimated past-year OUD prevalence rates based on the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), using adjustment methods that attempt to account for OUD underestimation in national household surveys. We used data from specialty substance use treatment records and outpatient pharmacy claims to estimate the gap between OUD prevalence and number of persons receiving medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) during the past decade. RESULTS: Adjusted estimates suggest past-year OUD affected 7,631,804 individuals in the U.S. in (2,773 per 100,000 adults 12+), relative to only 1,023,959 individuals who received MOUD (365 per 100,000 adults 12+). This implies approximately 86.6% of individuals with OUD nationwide who may benefit from MOUD treatment do not receive it. MOUD receipt increased across states over the past decade, but most regions still experience wide gaps between OUD prevalence and MOUD receipt. CONCLUSIONS: Despite some progress in expanding access to MOUD, a substantial gap between OUD prevalence and treatment receipt highlights the critical need to increase access to evidence-based services.
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The SUD treatment gap among college students is larger than the treatment gap observed among non-students in this sample (8.1%), the general US population, and other subpopulations of people with SUDs, including young adults.
“This discrepancy is larger than the treatment gap observed among non-students in this sample (8.1 %), the general US population, and other subpopulations of people with SUDs, including young adults (Krawczyk et al., 2022, Mekonen et al., 2021, Sahker et al., 2024).”
From The substance use disorder treatment gap among US college students: Findings from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2024) · cites this paper as Krawczyk et al., 2022
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- Authors
- Krawczyk, N., Rivera, B. D., Jent, V., Keyes, K. M., Jones, C. M., & Cerdá, M.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US)
- Corresponding author
- Krawczyk, Noa
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Drug Policy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-12
- Volume
- 110
- Pages
- 103786
- ISSN
- 0955-3959 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10976290
- OpenAlex
- W4289841403
- Cited by
- 308
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 48 · 2025: 77 · 2024: 108 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 57.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Drug Policy (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (CC999999)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Healthcare Policy and Management
- Keywords
- opioid use disorder, treatment gap, medication-assisted treatment, opioid epidemic, treatment access, prevalence estimates, state-level disparities, addiction treatment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analgesics, Opioid, Buprenorphine, Cross-Sectional Studies, Humans, Opioid-Related Disorders, United States, Opiate Substitution Treatment, Drug Overdose
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