Concurrent Depression Management in Patients with Opioid Use Disorder Undergoing Buprenorphine Therapy: Association with Buprenorphine Discontinuation

<b>Objective:</b> The relationship between concurrent depression and Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatment outcomes remains incompletely understood. Prior studies found mixed results regarding the impact of psychiatric comorbidities on retention to medications for OUD. This study aims to evaluate how the receipt of pharmacotherapy for depression impacts retention to buprenorphine therapy among patients with OUD and concurrent depression. <b>Methods:</b> We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Humana Healthcare Research claims database (2014-2020) on a sample of adult patients who initiated buprenorphine for OUD between January 2015, and September 2019. Patients were required to have a 180-day buprenorphine-free period pre-index. Patients with concurrent depression were identified via diagnosis in a medical claim within the baseline period. Antidepressant use was defined as cumulative exposure from the start of the baseline through the end of the 180-day follow-up period. The primary outcome was time to buprenorphine discontinuation, defined as a gap of more than 30 days from the day of last supply. Cox Proportional Hazards regression was used to estimate the association between antidepressant receipt and buprenorphine discontinuation. Sensitivity analyses on specific classes of antidepressants were also conducted. <b>Results:</b> The final analytical cohort included 1,973 patients with OUD and concurrent depression. Of these, 235 (11.91%) discontinued buprenorphine during the follow-up period, with a mean time to discontinuation of 97.92 (±68.64) days. Survival analysis revealed that patients who received antidepressants had a significantly lower hazard of discontinuation [aHR (95% CI): 0.995 (0.994, 0.996); <i>p <</i> .0001]. Initiated dose of buprenorphine also had a significant effect on the hazard of discontinuation [0.976 (0.956, 0.997); <i>p =</i> .0270]. <b>Conclusions:</b> Our findings support the notion that continuation of antidepressants when initiating buprenorphine therapy for OUD positively influences buprenorphine retention among patients with OUD and concurrent depression.