Long-Term Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder

Poverty and opioid addiction are interrelated and chronic problems which have not been addressed adequately. The Therapeutic Workplace could treat the many adults with opioid use disorder who are unemployed and live in poverty. The Therapeutic Workplace pays participants to work. To promote drug abstinence, the Therapeutic Workplace arranges employment-based abstinence reinforcement in which participants are required to provide drug-free urine samples to maintain maximum wages. Many studies have shown that employment-based abstinence reinforcement in the Therapeutic Workplace can promote and maintain drug abstinence. Recently, the investigators showed that abstinence-contingent wage supplements in the Therapeutic Workplace could promote drug abstinence and employment and reduce poverty. However, the investigators have not demonstrated the real-world impacts of the Therapeutic Workplace.