• Anita Srivastava, Meldon Mayer Kahan, Mae Katt, Tammy Patriquin, Henry Becker, Alison McAndrew, Colleen McCreery, and Claudette Chase.
• Associate Professor and Family and Addiction Medicine physician at Women's College Hospital and St Joseph's Health Centre in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the University of Toronto in Ontario. anita.srivastava@utoronto.ca.
• Can Fam Physician. 2020 Dec 1; 66 (12): 907-912.

ObjectiveTo assess for long-term positive effects of buprenorphine treatment (BT) on opioid use disorder (OUD) at a Nishnawbe Aski Nation high school clinic.DesignPostgraduation telephone survey of high school students between March 2017 and January 2018.SettingDennis Franklin Cromarty High School in Thunder Bay, Ont.ParticipantsAll 44 students who had received BT in the high school clinic during its operation from 2011 to 2013 were eligible to participate.Main Outcome MeasuresCurrent substance use, BT status, and social and employment status.ResultsThirty-eight of the 44 students who had received BT in the high school clinic were located and approached; 32 consented to participate in the survey. A descriptive analysis of the surveyed indicators was undertaken. Almost two-thirds (n = 20, 62.5%) of the cohort had graduated from high school, more than one-third (n = 12, 37.5%) were employed full time, and most (n = 29, 90.6%) rated their health as "good" or "OK." A greater percentage of participants who continued taking BT after high school (n = 19, 61.3%) were employed full time (n = 8, 42.1% vs n = 4, 33.3%) and were abstinent from alcohol (n = 12, 63.2% vs n = 4, 33.3%). Participants still taking BT were significantly more likely to have obtained addiction counseling in the past year than those participants not in treatment (n = 9, 47.4% vs n = 1, 8.3%; P = .0464).ConclusionThe study results suggest that offering OUD treatment to youth in the form of BT in a high school clinic might be an effective strategy for promoting positive long-term health and social outcomes. Clinical treatment guidelines currently recommend long-term opioid agonist treatment as the treatment of choice for OUD in the general population; they should consider adding youth to the population that might also benefit.Copyright © the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

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