Strategies to increase medications for opioid use disorder in hospital settings in the USA: protocol for a scoping review
GIST
Introduction Opioid use disorder (OUD) remains a serious and life-threatening disease. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are effective treatments for OUD but a minority of eligible patients receive them.
Hospitalisation is an opportune time to increase MOUD use. However, the description of the most successful strategies to implement MOUD is underexplored.
This scoping review will methodically review what strategies have been described in the literature to increase MOUD use in hospital settings in the USA. Methods and analysis Our scoping review will be completed using methods outlined by the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis .
English-language studies published after 1 January 2000, and situated in the USA will be included. Studies must explicitly mention an implementation strategy with the aim to increase MOUD initiation in a hospital setting.
MOUD will include buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone. Experimental and observational studies will be included for review.
Our search strategy will be guided by an academic librarian to search Ovid-Medline, Embase, CINAHL, APA PsycInfo, Scopus, Web of Science and Sociological Abstracts for peer-reviewed studies from 1 January 2000 to present.
Clinical Editorial
Summary
BMJ Open published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 25 Jun 2026.
The item focuses on Strategies to increase medications for opioid use disorder in hospital settings in the USA: protocol for a scoping review.
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