Treatment patterns and healthcare resource use among veterans initiating medication for incident moderate-to-severe alcohol use disorder.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Several medications for alcohol use disorder (MAUDs) are recommended to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the Veterans Affairs (VA) guidelines. This study descriptively characterized treatment patterns and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) among VA patients with AUD treated with VA-recommended MAUDs.

METHODS

Veterans Health Administration data (VHA; 08/01/2013-11/30/2019) were used to identify 31,384 adults aged ≥18 years with AUD who initiated disulfiram (n = 2115), acamprosate (n = 3756), oral naltrexone (n = 25,082), or extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX; n = 431) following AUD diagnosis. Study measures, stratified by medication received, included treatment adherence (proportion of days covered), discontinuation, and HCRU over 1 year.

RESULTS

Mean time to treatment discontinuation was high for all MAUDs but longest for XR-NTX (92 vs. 55-59 days; all p < .001). Relative to the year preceding AUD diagnosis, treatment with MAUDs was associated with fewer hospitalizations (XR-NTX: 0.48 vs. 0.42; oral naltrexone: 0.58 vs. 0.47; acamprosate: 0.67 vs. 0.60; disulfiram: 0.63 vs. 0.57) and more outpatient visits per patient (XR-NTX: 20.0 vs. 36.0; oral naltrexone: 19.0 vs. 30.0; acamprosate: 19.0 vs. 31.0; disulfiram: 17.0 vs. 29.0).

CONCLUSION

Among veterans with AUD, this descriptive analysis found that MAUD use was associated with reduced hospitalizations, and XR-NTX was associated with a longer treatment duration versus oral MAUDs.

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE

This real-world study is among the first to describe clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and HCRU in VHA patients who initiated MAUDs when all MAUDs were included in the VHA formulary.