Study Highlights Racial Disparities in Ability to Fill Prescription for Opioid Use Disorder Medication

A new study finds people who live in racially and economically segregated communities may have a difficult time filling their prescription for an opioid use disorder medication.

Researchers evaluated data from telephone calls to 858 pharmacies in 473 counties across the United States. Each caller contacted a pharmacy and asked about getting a buprenorphine prescription filled. About 20% of pharmacies overall were not able to provide the medication.

The analysis showed that in counties with the highest levels of racial and economic segregation, pharmacies were more than two times as likely to restrict their buprenorphine dispensing than pharmacies in the most economically privileged counties, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

“While there have been notable policy changes over the past decade that have improved access to meds used for opioid use disorder and made headway against racial disparities, those efforts haven’t taken into consideration the issue of whether patients can actually get their prescription filled,” study co-author Dan Hartung said in an Oregon State University news release.