Vol. 2 No. 1 (2022)
Health Technology Reviews

Clinical Effectiveness of Opioid Substitution Treatment

Published January 6, 2022

Key Messages

  • A preponderance of evidence identified in this review indicates a relative benefit in the clinical effectiveness of heroin-assisted treatment, injectable hydromorphone, or diacetylmorphine compared to methadone in patients with opioid use disorder.
  • Most of the evidence in this review describing sustained-release oral morphine versus methadone shows no significant difference in measures of clinical effectiveness for patients with opioid use disorder.
  • There is a lack of evidence reported in systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials describing the clinical effectiveness of oral hydromorphone, fentanyl patches, and fentanyl buccal tablets.
  • Most of the evidence in this review, describing various forms of opioid substitution treatments, has been characterized as low quality and draws from the same several trials.