It’s hard to compare the last two years with anything before, given the impact of COVID but even given that difference (or maybe because of it) the stats on veterans in recovery and their use of technology. Southern Minn reports…

There are many obstacles to opioid addiction treatment, but a new study shows one that one outgrowth of the COVID pandemic — telehealth — is enabling more U.S. veterans to get help.

Researchers examined care given to vets before and after a transition to telehealth visits in early 2020 for treatment of their opioid use disorder. Telehealth for patients receiving the prescription drug buphrenorphine to treat opioid dependence was relatively new in the Veterans Affairs health system before the pandemic, said lead author Dr. Allison Lin.

“The rapid switch to virtual visits for most patients kept people from dropping out of care, and telephone visits [also] played a key role,” said Lin, an addiction psychiatrist at the Ann Arbor VA in Michigan and investigator at the VA Center for Clinical Management Research.

In 2020, phone appointments significantly outnumbered video and in-person visits, the study found. Even in early 2021, phone visits made up 50% of monthly visits for vets using buprenorphine; video visits, 32%; and in-person care, 17%.

Compared to March 2019, on a monthly basis there was a 14% increase in number of vets receiving buphrenorphine treatment in February of last year. Over that same period, 6% fewer vets overall received any kind of addiction treatment.