April 27, 2025
2 min learn
Key takeaways:
- Solely half of pregnant girls with opioid use dysfunction obtain therapy in america.
- Buprenorphine decreased the likelihood of extreme maternal morbidity, NICU admission and preterm beginning.
HONOLULU — Buprenorphine therapy throughout being pregnant improved perinatal outcomes for girls with opioid use dysfunction and their infants, in contrast with no therapy, in keeping with a brand new research.
The variety of pregnant girls with opioid use dysfunction (OUD) has grown from 1.5 per 1,000 supply hospitalizations in 1999 to eight.2 per 1,000 supply hospitalizations in 2017, in keeping with Sunaya R. Krishnapura, BA, a graduating medical scholar at Vanderbilt College Faculty of Medication, who introduced findings from the research at PAS 2025. Additional, she mentioned pregnant girls are much less more likely to obtain an appointment with clinicians about OUD therapy than nonpregnant girls.
Buprenorphine decreased the likelihood of extreme maternal morbidity, NICU admission and preterm beginning.
“Present analysis on buprenorphine use in being pregnant has targeted on evaluating its medical outcomes with these of methadone,” Krishnapura instructed Healio. “Nonetheless, there’s restricted analysis analyzing the influence of buprenorphine therapy vs. no therapy on outcomes for moms and infants.”
She mentioned you will need to research how buprenorphine therapy impacts moms and infants in contrast with no therapy as a result of solely half of pregnant girls in america obtain therapy for OUD.
Krishnapura and colleagues performed a retrospective cohort research of 14,463 pregnant girls (median age, 27 years; interquartile vary, 24 to 31 years) enrolled in Tennessee’s Medicaid program who had been identified with OUD between 2010 and 2021. Roughly half (n = 7,469) acquired buprenorphine therapy between 20 weeks’ gestational age and beginning, whereas the remaining acquired no therapy. The researchers assessed perinatal outcomes occurring as much as 6 weeks after supply.
The research was additionally revealed in JAMA Well being Discussion board.
Total, girls and infants within the therapy group skilled fewer opposed perinatal occasions in contrast with those that didn’t obtain therapy (25.4% vs. 30.8%; P <.001).
The researchers famous that non-Hispanic Black girls had been considerably much less more likely to get therapy — 2% of ladies who did obtain therapy had been Black in contrast with 10% of those that didn’t (P < .001).
After adjusting for confounding components, the researchers discovered that buprenorphine therapy decreased the likelihood of extreme maternal morbidity by 1.2 (95% CI, 0.4-2.1) proportion factors, NICU admissions by 1.7 (95% CI, 0.4-2.9) proportion factors and preterm beginning by 5.3 (95% CI, 4-6.6) proportion factors. The likelihood of any opposed occasion was 5.1 (95% CI, 3.5-6.7) proportion factors decrease within the therapy group.
“We usually consider buprenorphine offering a major profit to pregnant girls, and it does,” Krishnapura mentioned. “Nonetheless, we discovered that treating moms with buprenorphine can also be related to a profound discount in preterm beginning.”
“These findings underscore the essential want for therapy enlargement in america,” she mentioned.
References:
For extra data:
Sunaya R. Krishnapura, BA, might be reached at sunaya.r.krishnapura@vanderbilt.edu and on Bluesky at @sunayak.bsky.social.
