A comparison of patients with opioid use disorder receiving buprenorphine treatment with and without peer recovery support services

Background: Opioid addiction continues to be a crisis within the United States. Pharmacological treatments have been studied extensively and are considered superior treatment methods for opioid use disorder (OUD). Adjunctive therapy to pharmacological interventions, including peer recovery support services (PRSS), is also available for patients with OUD, but is less studied. PRSS are designed to provide individual coordination services for patients seeking recovery and treatment, administered by individuals who have lived through the substance use disorder and recovery process. Methods: An observational study looking at differences in demographics and treatment engagement between individuals with OUD who were and were not receiving PRSS was conducted. Results: ANOVA and chi square analyses indicated no significant demographic differences between groups; however, additional ANOVA analyses demonstrated that patients receiving PRSS attended significantly more OUD medical appointments when compared to their non-PRSS counterparts, F(1, 275) = 8.72, p =.003. A negative binomial regression analysis indicated that receiving PRSS was associated with a greater number of OUD medical appointments attended, even after controlling for length of time in treatment. Conclusions: While these results suggest that PRSS may increase treatment engagement in patients with OUD, additional research that uses randomized designs is needed to examine the impact of PRSS on treatment engagement.