Artificial Intelligence for Predicting Treatment Adherence in Opioid Use Disorder: A Scoping Review

Background and AimOpioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic condition in which an individual engages in the persistent use of opioids that causes significant distress and negatively impacts their societal functioning. Treatment for OUD involves pharmacological therapies such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, typically used in combination with behavioral interventions such as counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy. However, non-adherence to OUD treatment is high, potentially leading to negative outcomes like relapse and increased risk of overdose. Therefore, identifying patients at risk of treatment nonadherence is essential to ensure that OUD is adequately managed. Models utilizing AI and ML techniques have emerged as promising candidates to achieve risk stratification in this patient population. We conducted a scoping review to capture and systematically map existing literature on AI and ML applications predicting adherence to treatment in individuals with OUD. MethodsOvid MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Digital Library were searched to identify and obtain peer-reviewed empirical research articles published from inception to October 7, 2024. Twenty-two studies were selected to be included in the review. ResultsAll studies that matched our search criteria were published after 2018 and predominantly conducted in the United States. Random forest models were frequently identified as the top performer although significant variability in algorithms, evaluation metrics, and key predictors was noted in the literature. ConclusionThe need for future research to cover more geographical locations, diversify patient populations, focus on a standardized group of models and outcomes, and utilize larger samples was highlighted.