According to a poster presentation at AMCP Nexus 2021, a refilled prescription digital therapeutic for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) has the potential to increase patient engagement, boost levels of abstinence, and reduce hospital encounters.

Existing data shows that patients who utilized a digital therapeutic for a single 12-week period for OUD had higher treatment retention rates, reduced substance usage, and increased engagement.

Yuri Maricich, MD, MBA, chief medical officer and head of development, Pear Therapeutics, and colleagues presented results from a real-world observational evaluation of patients with OUD who were prescribed either a 12- or 24-week prescription digital therapeutic. Authors of the study collected engagement and retention data via the prescription digital therapeutic and analyzed with descriptive statistics at the end of the second prescription.

Patient self-reports and urine drug screens were used to assess substance use and any urine drug screen data were assumed to be positive.  A regression analyses of hospital encounters for 12- vs 24-week prescriptions controlling for covariates was conducted.

Of 3853 patients with OUD who completed a 12-week prescription digital therapeutic, 643 were prescribed a second 12-week refill. Included study participants were an average age of 39 years and 56.7% female.

“In patients treated for 24 weeks, over 91% of patients were retained in treatment and 86% were abstinent in the last 4 weeks of treatment compared to patients treated for 12 weeks,” explained Dr Maricich and colleagues. “Patients treated for 12 weeks had a 44% decrease in unique hospital encounters compared to the 9 months prior to prescription digital therapeutic initiation, while those treated for 24 weeks had a 59% reduction compared to the same period.”

In conclusion, the use of the prescription digital therapeutic was “associated with increased engagement, higher levels of abstinence, and fewer hospital encounters compared to a single prescription for a prescription digital therapeutic.”

Reference:
Velez F, Malone D, Gerwien R, Yuri M, Kuo A, Boyer K. Real-world use and clinical outcomes after 24 weeks of treatment with a prescription digital therapeutic for opioid use disorder. Poster presented at: AMCP Nexus 2021; October 18-21, 2021; Denver, CO.