Telehealth-Delivered Opioid Agonist Therapy for the Treatment of Adults with Opioid Use Disorder: Review of Clinical Effectiveness, Cost-Effectiveness, and Guidelines

Not much research available yet: Limited evidence from one non-randomized retrospective study showed that after one year of treatment, those who participated in telehealth-delivered OAT were more likely to remain on uninterrupted OAT than those who received in-person OAT. The British Columbia Centre of Substance Abuse recommends that home-based, self-initiated OAT may be considered for those who have previous experience with OAT, or who have significant barriers to office attendance, while those who express significant apprehension of experiencing withdrawal, or those with concurrent alcohol and sedative use or misuse, are not likely to be good candidates for home induction. No relevant clinical studies regarding the use of home-based self-initiated therapy and no relevant cost-effectiveness studies regarding the use of telehealth or home-based self-initiated OAT were identified.