NCT06774248

Expanding the Youth Opioid Recovery Support (YORS) Intervention for MOUD Adherence to Adolescents With OUD

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 80 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Potomac Health Foundations · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 13 Years – 21 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Despite rising rates of fatal opioid overdoses in the United States, adolescents with OUD are far less likely than adults to receive and be retained on medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The multicomponent Youth Opioid Recovery Support (YORS) intervention for young adults seeks to increase adherence to extended-release MOUD and reduce opioid relapse through family involvement, assertive outreach, low-barrier access to MOUD, and contingency management. By expanding investigations of the evidence based YORS intervention to adolescents, especially those on sublingual buprenorphine, this project will significantly contribute to our knowledge base of practical strategies to address the opioid crisis in youth.

Detailed description

Adolescents with OUD are a critical but underserved population. Despite rising rates of fatal opioid overdoses in the United States, adolescents with OUD are far less likely than adults to receive and be retained on medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Estimates of timely MOUD initiation among adolescents with OUD are ≤ 5% and only a quarter of residential addiction treatment facilities for adolescents even offer buprenorphine. Among the few adolescents with OUD who do receive MOUD, adherence is alarmingly low. The multicomponent Youth Opioid Recovery Support (YORS) intervention for young adults seeks to increase adherence to extended-release MOUD and reduce opioid relapse through family involvement, assertive outreach, low-barrier access to MOUD, and contingency management. This project will expand the investigation of the YORS intervention, with demonstrated efficacy in young adults, to the critical underserved population of adolescents with OUD. Adolescents are theoretically even more likely than young adults to respond to YORS components such as family involvement, persuasion, and leverage because of their developmentally normative greater reliance on parental guidance and influence. Through this project investigators also will expand the YORS intervention to include adolescents choosing sublingual buprenorphine, which are adaptations responsive to our local clinical experience and national trends. To achieve these aims, investigators will test the feasibility and pilot impact of YORS for N=40 adolescents and their family members in an uncontrolled, single arm clinical trial in preparation for a future larger scale randomized controlled trial. Because the preferred MOUD for adolescents in our clinical experience has been daily sublingual buprenorphine (rather than XR-MOUD), investigators will adapt YORS for sublingual buprenorphine. Finally, investigators will also conduct qualitative interviews to better understand the experience of adolescents with OUD and their families.

Conditions

• Opioid Use Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Youth Opioid Recovery Support (YORS)	The Youth Opioid Recovery Support (YORS) model is an innovative wrap-around approach that attempts to address barriers to medication adherence in this vulnerable young adult population. The YORS intervention primary components are (as detailed below): 1. Low barrier access to MOUD, including home delivery, ride-share app transportation and mobile van delivery and low barrier access to MOUD in general 2. Engagement of families in collaborative treatment planning and monitoring with a focus on medication adherence 3. Assertive continuing care: actively tracking and communicating with youth and families by text and social media to promote engagement and adherence 4. Contingency management: to provide incentives for medication adherence

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-02-01
• Primary completion: 2027-07-01
• Completion: 2027-08-01
• First posted: 2025-01-14
• Last updated: 2025-11-18

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States