This brief summarizes a new systematic review of economic evaluations of treatments for substance use disorders. The review reveals strong evidence that methadone maintenance therapy is an economically advantageous form of treatment; the economic evidence for buprenorphine and naltrexone treatments is more limited.

In the U.S., the use of opioid pain relievers during pregnancy continues to rise. This has contributed to an increased incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which occurs in approximately 6 per 1000 hospital births and results in long hospital stays and high healthcare costs. While oral morphine is the predominant agent used to treat NAS, in adults, buprenorphine produces less cardiopulmonary depression compared to other long-acting opioids.