Acceptability and efficacy of naltrexone for criminal justice-involved individuals with opioid use disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

Criminal justice-involved individuals carry a disproportionately higher burden of opioid use disorder (OUD) than those not involved with the criminal justice system, and are often unable to access opioid agonist therapies such as methadone and buprenorphine. The opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone (NTX) is effective for the prevention of relapse to OUD and may be more acceptable in criminal justice settings. The objectives of this review were to: (1) provide an overall summary effect across studies for the efficacy and acceptability of oral and injectable NTX for the treatment of OUD among criminal justice-involved individuals and (2) examine systematic variations in study results to explain heterogeneity among study-specific effects.