skip to main content
Washington State Institute for Public Policy
Back Button

Buprenorphine for opioid use disorder for adults post-release

Adult Criminal Justice
  Literature review updated March 2021.

For patients with opiate use disorder, buprenorphine, a type of partial agonist opioid, generates a limited euphoric effect of opiates, with the goal that patients experience limited withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking the drug. Its intent is to reduce cravings and prevent relapse.

Buprenorphine, in our analysis, is administered as an oral medication. Pharmacists administered buprenorphine for 12-weeks while patients were in the community. Patients in our analysis meet the criteria for opioid use disorder, are all female, and are on some form of criminal justice supervision (either parole or probation) following a release from jail, prison, or a residential drug treatment program. Patients in the comparison condition receive a medical placebo.
 
ALL
META-ANALYSIS
CITATIONS

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured No. of effect sizes Treatment N Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
ES SE Age ES p-value
Opioid use disorder
Clinical diagnosis of opioid use disorder or symptoms on a validated scale.
0 1 24 0.000 0.570 32 0.000 1.000

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Cropsey, K.L., Lane, P.S., Hale, G.J., Jackson, D.O., Clark, C.B., Ingersoll, K.S., . . . Islam, M.A., (2011). Results of a pilot randomized controlled trial of buprenorphine for opioid dependent women in the criminal justice system. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 119(3), 172-178.