Employment and Long-Acting Injectable Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder: Findings from Longitudinal Qualitative Interviews Conducted with Patients Recruited from Drug Treatment Services.

Introduction: Associations between substance use and unemployment are well established but complex. People dependent on opioids often want to work but encounter barriers, including requirements to attend services and/or pharmacies frequently. Long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) is a new pharmacological treatment for opioid use disorder, which reduces such attendance requirements. Studies indicate positive associations between LAIB treatment and employment, but there has been no detailed analysis of this topic.

Methods: Longitudinal qualitative interviews were conducted with 26 people (18 males; 8 females) initiating LAIB in English and Welsh drug treatment services. Participants were interviewed by telephone up to six times over a year (125 interviews in total). Interview data were used to produce narrative accounts of each participant's work-related experiences. These accounts were then combined and analysed via Iterative Categorization.

Results: Participants reported mixed education and employment histories. At first interview, three had full-time jobs, three were students, one worked occasionally, and nineteen were not working. Participants who remained on, or completed, their LAIB treatment reported ongoing work and education or new work-seeking activities, temporary/part-time work, or volunteering. Participants who discontinued LAIB did not start any new education, training or work during their time in the study. Most participants wanted to work but identified barriers to employment and little help with job-seeking. Participants confirmed that LAIB facilitated employment because they did not have to attend pharmacies so often and felt physically and psychologically more able to work. Nonetheless, they sometimes felt unwell after initiating LAIB, which interrupted work and study and made them reluctant to reduce their LAIB treatment later.

Conclusion: LAIB may help drug treatment patients who are interested in securing employment or achieving broader employment-related outcomes, such as education, training and volunteering. However, patients receiving LAIB may also need personalized employment support to assist them with wider barriers to working.