Therapeutic Relationships between Veterans and Buprenorphine Providers and Effects on Treatment Retention.

Veterans initiating buprenorphine frequently did not have a therapeutic history with their initial buprenorphine provider, but this relationship was not associated with treatment retention. Future work should investigate how the quality of Veteran-provider therapeutic relationships influences OUD management, and whether eliminating training requirements for providers might affect access to buprenorphine, and subsequently treatment initiation and retention.