Outpatient early methadone dose titration – as recommended in Canadian and US clinical guidance for individuals using fentanyl – is associated with improved treatment retention and lower risk of opioid toxicity, according to new retrospective cohort s

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Article title: Association between early methadone dose titration and treatment discontinuation and opioid toxicity: A retrospective cohort study

Author countries : Canada

Funding: Author T.G. received grants from the Ontario Ministry of Health (No. 0691) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (No. 496563), which supported this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

PLOS Medicine

10.1371/journal.pmed.1004748

Observational study

People

Competing interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: N.B. reports receiving personal fees from Ontario College of Family Physicians for moderation of continuing professional development talks, some of which relate to opioid agonist therapy, outside the submitted work. T.G. reports consulting fees from Canada’s Drugs Agency, honoraria from Indigenous Services Canada, and contracts with the Ontario College of Pharmacists and the Auditor General of British Columbia unrelated to this work. She has also been paid for expert testimony in an inquest led by the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner. J.W. co-authored the methadone prescribing recommendation for people who use fentanyl, officially released by the Mentoring, Education, and Clinical Tools for Addiction – Partners in Health Integration in June 2021.