Routine Pregnancy Screening for Women on Opioid Substitution Therapy

Women who take opioid substitution therapy have higher rates of unintended pregnancy, more pregnancies, and a higher risk of pregnancy complications than the general population. Current practice is to test for pregnancy only at patient request or if the clinician suspects pregnancy. This study will compare monthly pregnancy testing to current practice in a double blind randomized control trial. As many women of childbearing age as possible will be recruited from the Hamilton Clinic for Opioid Substitutional Therapy. Women assigned to the intervention will have monthly testing at the same time as their monthly urine drug testing at the clinic. The primary objective is to assess if there is a significant difference is early pregnancy detection and the secondary objectives are to assess differences in pregnancy disposition and gestational age at entry to prenatal or abortion care.

The Routine Pregnancy Screening in Women on Opioid Substitutional Therapy study involves screening women from the The Hamilton Clinic for OST regularly for pregnancy to determine if this results in earlier prenatal care and improved pregnancy disposition. All eligible women at the Hamilton clinic will be approached for recruitment. The study phase last for 18 months. The investigators will assess for any significant difference in the rates of early pregnancy diagnosis, pregnancy disposition, and associated outcome measurements. Study results could inform best practices in the care of child-bearing women on OST and will provide baseline information and feasibility data to inform design of a larger RCT to assess the effect on pregnancy and birth outcomes. This pilot study will serve to demonstrate whether routine pregnancy screening is effective for earlier pregnancy diagnosis and whether it has any impact on pregnancy disposition and entry into pregnancy-related care for women on OST. In addition, the investigators will also be seeking to address whether routine pregnancy testing is logistically and financially feasible for patients receiving OST at a primary care-run addiction setting. If this intervention is found to be both effective and feasible, it would be possible to apply this study methodology to larger-scale RCTs across multiple clinical sites with the power to assess maternal and fetal outcomes.