Intersectional Risk and the Significant Gap in Care for Persons with Co-occurring Chronic Pain and Opioid Withdrawal

Abstract

Objectives Persons with chronic pain and women tend to enter treatment for opioid use disorder with greater opioid withdrawal severity than persons without chronic pain and men, respectively. This study examined characteristics of facilities with opioid withdrawal treatment, including gender-based services, as a function of whether they reported having a tailored pain management program. Methods The National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services 2020 was used to examine 3942 facilities with opioid withdrawal treatment in the United States. Using a multivariable binary logistic regression model, facilities were examined for the presence of a tailored program for individuals with co-occurring pain. Regional location of the facility, ownership status, and availability of tailored gender programs, nonhospital residential services, and outpatient services served as independent variables in the analysis. Results A slight majority of the sample had a program for both adult men and adult women (n = 2010, 51.0%). Most facilities had outpatient services (n = 3289, 83.4%) and did not have a tailored program for addressing co-occurring pain (n = 2756, 69.9%). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that among opioid withdrawal facilities, programs with nonhospital residential services, government or private nonprofit funding, or tailored gender programming had higher odds of reporting having a tailored program for pain and substance use disorder. Facilities in the Western United States were most likely to have tailored programs for pain and substance use disorder. Conclusions Future research should investigate what support patients may receive and how to better scale access to pain management during opioid withdrawal treatment.