(NewsNation) — Residential addiction treatment centers in the U.S. that serve adolescents under 18 are limited and expensive, a new study reveals, despite increasing drug overdose deaths among teens.
The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, was led by researchers at Oregon Health and Science University who identified 160 facilities nationwide that treated teens with opioid use disorder as of December 2022.
Researchers revealed that they couldn’t find treatment facilities for teens in 10 states: Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
“The ability to access timely, evidence-based treatment for addiction can be a matter of life or death, and the current system too often fails young people,” said Nora Volkow, M.D., director of NIDA. “We need to make access to timely, affordable, and evidence-based care the norm across treatment settings.”
Additionally, the study found that about half (54%) of the residential addiction treatment sites that they contacted had a bed immediately available. For those that had a waitlist, the average estimated time before a bed opened was 28 days.
Meanwhile, for those who do find a placement, the average daily cost was $878 with nearly half of the facilities that provided information requesting partial or full payment upfront. The average residential facility cost of a month’s stay was more than $26,000.
Some sites offered loans through an outside provider or suggested alternatives such as taking out a second mortgage on a home or putting it on a new credit card.
In 2022, an estimated 2.2 million people between the ages of 12 and 17 had a substance use disorder in the past year, with 265,000 having an opioid use disorder, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Previous data found a rise in overdose deaths among teens between 2010 and 2021, which remained elevated into 2022.
The increase was linked to illicit fentanyl, a potent synthetic drug, contaminating the supply of counterfeit pills made to resemble prescription medications.
To conduct this survey, researchers posed as the aunt or uncle of a 16-year-old seeking treatment after a recent non-fatal fentanyl overdose, inquiring about admission and costs. They identified residential treatment centers primarily through a database maintained by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and extracted cost information for 108 facilities.
Researchers said the situation highlights the importance of providing addiction treatment across the medical field as opposed to relying on residential inpatient centers that are scarce, expensive and often ineffective,
This study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), both part of and led by researchers at NIH.
The situation highlights the importance of providing addiction treatment across the medical field as opposed to relying on residential inpatient centers that are scarce, expensive and often ineffective, researchers said.