Personally-tailored opioid-overdose and medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) education (TOME) significantly increases MOUD and overdose knowledge in peripartum individuals: Results from a randomized controlled pilot trial.

BACKGROUND

Overdose is a leading cause of pregnancy-associated mortality in the US. Our personally-tailored opioid-overdose (OOD) and medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) education intervention has been shown to significantly improve MOUD/OOD knowledge in out-of-treatment persons using illicit opioids. We evaluated the ability of the intervention modified for peripartum (pregnant or within one year postpartum) individuals, the personally-tailored OOD and MOUD education (TOME) intervention, to increase MOUD (primary) and OOD (key secondary) knowledge.

METHODS

A six-site, two-arm, open-label, trial with 131 peripartum individuals receiving MOUD (methadone or buprenorphine) randomized to TOME, a 15-minute, computer-facilitated, individually-tailored intervention, or Control. TOME participants received education on MOUD and OOD questions they missed in a pre-test. Control participants received SAMHSA handouts on OOD and MOUD. All participants were scheduled for a 3-week post-test.

RESULTS

Participants were enrolled in MOUD for an average of 15.6 months (SD=20.4) at baseline, with 30.5 % enrolled in methadone and 69.5 % enrolled in buprenorphine treatment. On the pre-test, participants answered 66.7 % of the MOUD and 82.1 % of the OOD questions correctly on average. Linear regressions indicated that participants' MOUD (X2=33.96, p < 0.001) and OOD (X2=45.78, p < 0.001) knowledge increased significantly more in the TOME, relative to Control, group.

CONCLUSIONS

In a sample of peripartum patients enrolled in MOUD for a substantial length of time, TOME significantly increased MOUD and OOD knowledge. Taken together with past research, these findings suggest that there are gaps in MOUD and OOD knowledge in individuals with opioid use disorder that can be addressed with brief personally-tailored education.