- Title
- Provider costs of treating opioid dependence with extended-release buprenorphine in Australia
- Creator
- Settumba, Stella; Shahbazi, Jeyran; Blazey, Alison; Weiss, Robert; Dunlop, Adrian; McDonough, Michael; Cook, Jon; Farrell, Michael; Byrne, Marianne; Degenhardt, Louisa; Grebely, Jason; Larance, Briony; Nielsen, Suzanne; Lintzeris, Nicholas; Ali, Robert; Rodgers, Craig
- Relation
- Drug and Alcohol Review Vol. 44, Issue 1, p. 179-194
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dar.13956
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2025
- Description
- Introduction: The costs of providing medication-assisted treatment for opioid dependence can determine its scale of provision. To provide estimates of the costs of extended-release buprenorphine (BUP-XR), we performed a bottom-up costing analysis of provider operational treatment costs. Methods: Data were collected in a single-arm open label trial of BUP-XR injections conducted in specialist public drug treatment services and primary care private practices in three Australian states (the CoLAB study). The unit costs of resources used for each activity were combined with quantities used at each participating facility to arrive at the average annual cost per client. Results: One hundred participants across the six health facility sites received monthly subcutaneous BUP-XR injections administered by a health-care practitioner. The average cost of providing 1 year of treatment per participant was $6656 ($6026–$8326). Screening cost (initial assessment and medical history) was $282 while monthly follow-up appointments cost $531 per client. The main cost driver was the monthly treatment costs accounting for 79% of the average annual client cost, with medication costs comprising 95% of this cost. Discussion and Conclusion: With medication costs making up the largest proportion of treatment costs, treatment using BUP-XR has the potential to free up other health system resources, for example, staff time. The costs reported in this study can be used in an economic evaluation to estimate the net benefit or cost-effectiveness of BUP-XR especially when compared to other opioid agonist treatments.
- Subject
- costs and cost analysis; extended-release buprenorphine; opioi dependence; provider perspective; SDG 3; Sustainable Development Goal
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1518248
- Identifier
- uon:57264
- Identifier
- ISSN:0959-5236
- Rights
- © 2024 The Author(s). Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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