Stable housing with methadone maintenance therapy and motivational interviewing as a treatment for opioid use disorder

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic relapsing condition associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality. Patients suffering from OUD have an increased risk of death from suicide, HIV, infectious disease, and trauma, among other causes. Patients suffering from OUD often manage various comorbid psychiatric illnesses and homelessness. From 1999 to 2017, an estimated 400,000 people died from prescription opioid related overdoses. In 2014, there were 28,647 opioid related overdose deaths in the United States. The current standard of care for treatment of OUD is an opioid receptor agonist methadone or buprenorphine combined with a psychosocial intervention, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), contingency management (CM), or motivational interviewing (MI). MI has proven to be effective in treating OUD when combined with methadone and buprenorphine. Other studies have found increased rates of opioid abstinence when study subjects were provided recovery housing contingent on urine that was free of opioids and other substances (CM). Among patients with a history of incarceration and co-morbid OUD, stable housing in some form -- private residence or living with a friend or family -- has been found to be effective in reducing opioid use when compared to homelessness as a control, suggesting homelessness confers a higher risk of opioid use. This prospective observational study aims to evaluate the effect of stable housing on opioid use disorder treatment and recovery. Study subjects will be Boston area residents who are prescribed methadone. Investigators will follow study subjects over six months while they attend weekly motivational interviewing sessions as part of their treatment regime and attend methadone clinics as usual. Once per week, study subjects will submit urine samples to study affiliated Medical Assistants (MA). Urine samples will be sent to LabCorp for toxicology analysis. At the conclusion of the study, investigators will examine which patients had longer time to relapse based on their housing status. We hypothesize that subjects with stable housing will have longer abstinence, as measured by urine toxicology, than subjects without stable housing. Positive findings could be used to help influence policy makers and federal and state legislation to promote stable housing for patients recovering from OUD