Opioid overdose can be reduced by extending the availability of medication buprenorphine in a primary care setting, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in New England Journal of Medicine. In their //Perspectives article entitled "Primary Care and the Opioid-Overdose Crisis - Buprenorphine Myths and Realities," Sarah Wakeman, MD, medical director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Substance Use Disorders Initiative and Michael Barnett, MD, of the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, describe current barriers to expanded delivery of buprenorphine treatment and outline possible solutions.
‘FDA approved medicines for the opioid use disorder are decreasing rather than meeting the demand in recent years which may be the reason for opioid overdose deaths.’
Tweet it Now
"One of the tragic ironies is that with well-established medical treatment, opioid use disorder can have an excellent prognosis," they write, noting that almost 80 percent of Americans with opioid use disorder are unable to receive treatment and that the growth in distribution of buprenorphine - one of three FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder - has been slowing rather than increasing in recent years. "To have any hope of stemming the overdose tide, we have to make it easier to obtain buprenorphine than to get heroin and fentanyl."The authors describe 5 persistent but inaccurate myths that they believe prevent buprenorphine from being more widely adopted:
- That is more dangerous that other common health care interventions.
- That buprenorphine treatment is just replacing one addition for another.
- That abstinence based treatment short-term detoxification and rehabilitation is more effective than medication-based treatment.
- That providing buprenorphine treatment is particularly onerous and time consuming for primary care physicians (PCPs).
- That physicians should just reduce opioid prescriptions to address the overdose epidemic.
Wakeman is an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital; Barnett is an assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard Chan School, an instructor in Medicine at HMS and a Brigham and Women's Hospital physician. Their article is one of three addressing improvements in medication treatment for opioid use disorder in the same NEJM issue.
Source-Eurekalert