Starting medication to treat opioid use disorder within 30 days of being discharged from the hospital due to injection drug use-related endocarditis—a type of serious heart infection—improves health outcomes, a new study shows. Led by researchers at Boston Medical Center’s Grayken Center for Addiction, the results showed that those who receive medication in that timeframe are less likely to overdose or be readmitted to the hospital within a year. Given that the underlying cause of many endocarditis inpatient hospitalizations is opioid use disorder, the findings highlight the importance of offering and prescribing medications to treat opioid use disorder while these patients are in the hospital, and connecting them to treatment after discharge.
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