According to the results of a new research study carried out by researchers at Yale University, medications used to treat opioid use disorder can significantly decrease the risk of repeat overdoses in people who have survived an opioid overdose. The study, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, involved over 4,000 individuals and spanned 19 months, compared multiple treatment types for opioid addiction.

The results found that medications for opioid use disorder, such as methadone and buprenorphine, were far more effective than inpatient rehabilitation alone, which showed no independent impact on reducing future overdoses.

“This real-world experience confirms what we see in clinical trials,” said Dr. Benjamin Howell, assistant professor of medicine and lead author of the study, in a press release. “Medications are shown to improve a range of outcomes like treatment retention, drug use, criminalized behavior, and even employment.”

In addition, the study results showed that there were no statistical differences between inpatient treatment, such as rehabilitation or detox, and receiving no treatment, which means inpatient treatment has no independent effect on subsequent overdoses. Dr. Howell noted that this finding reveals the need for medications to be provided together with inpatient treatment.

“These medications are the gold standard for the treatment of opioid use disorder by the NIH and other authoritative bodies, and they are effective because they prevent withdrawal and decrease craving,” said Dr. David Fellin, professor of medicine at Yale University and study co-author.

In the study, the authors also concluded that even though opioid agonist treatments are associated with a reduced risk of overdose following a non-fatal opioid-involved overdose, only a minority of individuals access these medications. Currently, methadone and buprenorphine are controlled substances in the U.S. and are available by prescription only. “Medications prevent overdoses and ultimately save lives. So it follows that we should continue to pursue efforts to reduce barriers to accessing them,” said Dr. William Becker, professor of medicine at Yale.