Peer Recovery Support for Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Retention

Reducing OUD Treatment Dropout: Development and Pilot Test of a Peer Recovery Support Intervention in Primary Care

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether adding peer recovery support services to standard opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment in primary care helps patients stay in treatment longer. The main question it seeks to answer is whether it is feasible to deliver a peer recovery support intervention alongside medication-assisted treatment (buprenorphine) in a Philadelphia primary care clinic.

Participants will receive standard OUD treatment (buprenorphine) combined with peer recovery support services for 180 days. They will attend study visits at baseline, weekly for the first 2 weeks, then every 2 weeks, then monthly, and complete assessments about substance use, medication adherence, self-efficacy, resilience, and coping. Participants will also take part in brief periodic interviews about their experience with peer support.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Opioid Use Disorder; Buprenorphine; Primary Care; Peer Recovery Coaching; Peer Recovery Supporters
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Peer Support

Detailed Description

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic, relapsing condition associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and social burden. Buprenorphine, delivered in primary care settings, is an evidence-based treatment for OUD, yet treatment dropout remains a critical barrier to recovery. Many patients disengage during the early weeks following induction, before buprenorphine has had the opportunity to stabilize their condition. Peer recovery support (PRS) services, provided by individuals with lived experience of addiction and recovery, represent a promising strategy to improve retention, but the evidence base for optimized peer interventions in primary care OUD treatment remains limited.

The peer intervention evaluated in this study was developed through a systematic optimization process conducted in partnership with OUD, peer, and implementation experts, with extensive input from patients, practitioners, and community stakeholders. Intervention design drew on surveys and qualitative studies of Philadelphia-region OUD treatment programs with existing peer support services, as well as best practices from community health worker models in other chronic disease settings. Component elements, including peer qualifications, supervision structure, training curriculum, caseload size, scope of services, and care team integration, were systematically evaluated and refined prior to the pilot.

The resulting intervention is organized around five core structural elements: (1) clinically integrated supervision with structured case review; (2) standardized recruitment and hiring practices emphasizing empathy, problem-solving capacity, and community engagement; (3) a competency-based training curriculum covering psychosocial support, crisis response, stigma, interprofessional ethics, social determinants of health, and system navigation; (4) stage-tailored peer-patient contact, with intensive engagement during the high-dropout early induction period transitioning to stabilization-focused support as treatment progresses; and (5) active peer wellness practices to mitigate compassion fatigue and burnout.

This pilot study will evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and operational implementation of the intervention within primary care-based buprenorphine treatment programs and generate data to inform a future randomized controlled trial.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 15
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • Penn Family Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18 years or older
• Diagnosis of opioid use disorder (OUD)
• Currently receiving or initiating buprenorphine treatment from a primary care physician
• Able to communicate in English
• Access to a phone
• Able and willing to provide written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Acute suicidal ideation or intent
• Active mania or psychotic episode
• Significant cognitive impairment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Peer Support

Behavioral: Peer Support; Peer recovery support services delivered by trained, certified peers with lived experience of opioid use disorder, added to standard medication-assisted treatment (buprenorphine) in a primary care setting. Peer services are structured around three stages of OUD treatment (initial engagement, early treatment, and stable treatment) with contact intensity tailored to dropout risk at each stage (approximately 2 contact hours/week during initial engagement). Contact modalities include in-office meetings, phone calls, texts, and appointment reminders. Peers are supervised and integrated as full members of the clinical care team. The intervention was developed with input from OUD, peer, and implementation experts and informed by qualitative and survey data from Philadelphia-region OUD treatment programs. Caseload: approximately 15 patients per peer. Duration: 180 days.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
OUD treatment retention	Retention in OUD treatment measured as time in days from treatment initiation (buprenorphine induction) to dropout (unplanned treatment termination) or treatment completion over the 180-day study period.	180 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-report opioid use	Assessed using an abbreviated 30-day Time-Line Follow-Back (TLFB) instrument capturing self-reported opioid use at each study visit.	180 days
Buprenorphine adherence	Assessed using the Brief Medication Questionnaire (self-report).	180 days
Resilience, coping, and self-efficacy	A 30-item composite questionnaire combining three patient-centered outcome domains to minimize participant burden. Section 1 (Resilience, 10 items) uses a 5-point Likert scale rating the past month, with 4 items reverse-scored; scores range from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating greater resilience. Section 2 (Coping Strategies, 10 items adapted from the Brief COPE) uses a 4-point scale rating frequency of coping strategy use, including a substance use item; scores range from 10 to 40, with higher scores indicating greater frequency of coping strategy use. Section 3 (Abstinence Self-Efficacy, 10 items adapted from the Alcohol Abstinence Self-Efficacy Scale) uses a 5-point confidence scale assessing ability to remain opioid-free across situational triggers over the past week; scores range from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating greater confidence in maintaining opioid abstinence.	180 days
Opioid urine drug screen positivity	Proportion of urine drug screens positive for opioids, obtained at routine clinical visits throughout the study period.	180 days

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
• Collaborators: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Rebecca A Harris, MD, University of Pennsylvania

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Bao Y, Zhang H, Hutchings K, Harris RA, Calderbank T, Schackman BR. Medicaid-Covered Peer Support Services Used by Enrollees With Opioid Use Disorder. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jul 1;7(7):e2420737. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.20737.
• Harris RA, Campbell K, Calderbank T, Dooley P, Aspero H, Maginnis J, O'Donnell N, Coviello D, French R, Bao Y, Mandell DS, Bogner HR, Lowenstein M. Integrating peer support services into primary care-based OUD treatment: Lessons from the Penn integrated model. Healthc (Amst). 2022 Sep;10(3):100641. doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2022.100641. Epub 2022 Jul 2.
• Harris RA, Mandell DS, Kampman KM, Bao Y, Campbell K, Cidav Z, Coviello DM, French R, Livesey C, Lowenstein M, Lynch KG, McKay JR, Oslin DW, Wolk CB, Bogner HR. Collaborative care in the treatment of opioid use disorder and mental health conditions in primary care: A clinical study protocol. Contemp Clin Trials. 2021 Apr;103:106325. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2021.106325. Epub 2021 Feb 22.
• Harris RA, Kearney M, Keddem S, Calderbank T, Tomczuk L, Clapp J, Perrone J, Kranzler HR, Long JA, Mandell DS. Organization of primary care and early MOUD discontinuation. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2024 Dec 19;19(1):96. doi: 10.1186/s13722-024-00527-w.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 9, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): October 31, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): October 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 13, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 26, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): June 2, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 2, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 26, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Primary Care; Opioid Use Disorder; Buprenorphine; OUD; Medications for Opioid Use Disorder; Peer Recovery Coach; Peer Recovery Support
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Narcotic-Related Disorders; Mental Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Opioid-Related Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 858768; K23DA054157 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Individual participant data will not be shared. This is a small pilot feasibility study involving participants with opioid use disorder, a population for whom confidentiality protections are particularly important given the sensitivity of substance use data and potential risks of stigma and discrimination. The sample is too small for effective de-identification of individual-level data. Aggregate descriptive findings will be reported in publications.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No