OBJECTIVES

: Patients receiving treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) must bear a significant financial burden. The objective of this systematic scoping review is to examine the literature for the burden of cost to patients with treated with medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

METHODS

: This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- Analysis for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) of health care interventions .The following three databases were searched: (1) Medline, (2) PsycINFO, and (3) PubMed. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) the study investigated the cost treating OUD with MAT from the perspective of the patient living in the United States, (2) data was collected regarding direct cost, indirect cost, or financial burden to patients with OUD treated with MAT, (3) the subjective financial distress, financial coping behaviors, or psycho-social cost must be related to the financial cost or financial burden of treatment, and (4) adults 18 years of age and older that do not have a dominant disease state.

RESULTS

: A total of 576 articles were found by the search strategy, 282 articles were duplicates, 247 articles were removed by reviewing titles and abstract, and 47 articles underwent a full text review. Eight articles made it into the systematic scoping review. Studies included in the review measured financial burden by measuring medication cost (N=3), productivity loss (N=1), medical costs (N=4), and financial distress (N=1). No articles identified were able to link subjective financial distress, financial coping behaviors, or psycho-social cost to the financial cost of treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

A reliable and validated patient reported outcome measure needs to be developed to appropriately measure the psycho-social cost of treatment to patients with OUD treated with MAT.