The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medications for opioid use disorder services in the U.S. and Canada: a scoping review

Abstract

Background

Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary evidence suggests that rates of opioid use and overdose in North America have only been exacerbated. During this time, healthcare services providing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) have faced heightened challenges, rapidly adjusting services in order to continue to provide access to treatment. To better understand the impact of the pandemic on MOUD services in the U.S. and Canada, this scoping review summarizes and synthesizes the existing literature on this topic.

Methods

Articles were deemed eligible to be included in this review if they met the following three criteria: focused on MOUD services; situated within the COVID-19 pandemic; and situated within the U.S. or Canada.

Results

Common themes among the articles that met inclusion included the impacts of MOUD policy changes; the transition to telehealth; challenges to providing MOUD; innovative changes to services; and recommendations for policy and service changes. Many articles supported MOUD regulatory changes, with some finding these changes had increased access to MOUD for underserved populations.

Conclusions

There is currently a pressing need to evaluate the impacts on MOUD services in greater depth, as recent changes could have lasting implications on future MOUD regulatory policies and treatment standards.

Keywords:

• Opioid use disorder
• medications for opioid use disorder
• COVID-19 pandemic
• substance use disorder treatment
• scoping review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under Grant MS4-173112. Daniel Parker is supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr. Wendt is supported by a Chercheur-Boursier Award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé.