The findings give further weight to the conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic more negatively affected minority groups, who face more barriers to health care in general.

“Drops in prescribing medication to treat opioid addiction at the onset of the pandemic were significant for Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients, but not for white patients,” says study coauthor Jennifer Miles, a postdoctoral associate in the School of Social Work at Rutgers University.

For the study in JAMA Network Open, researchers examined Symphony Health, a national prescription database with race, ethnicity, and insurance status for 280 million patients and 1.8 million prescribers.

Using this database, the researchers analyzed prescriptions filled by retail, mail order, and specialty pharmacies from May 2019 to June 2021 to compare treatment for opioid addiction before and after the start of the pandemic in the United States.

“We focused on buprenorphine and naltrexone medications, which can be prescribed for use at home,” Miles says. “We studied the numbers of patients prescribed each medication and the length of buprenorphine prescriptions since extended-release naltrexone is effective for about a month.”

Researchers found that, for all racial and ethnic groups, pandemic-related decreases in opioid addiction medication put an end to increasing use before the pandemic. However, declines in prescriptions at the onset of the pandemic were especially pronounced for Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients, in contrast with white patients.

The researchers say the findings provide important information for addressing disparities in public health and grappling with a nationwide opioid epidemic.

Read the full article about opioid addiction treatment by Patti Verbanas at Futurity.