If primary care physicians (PCPs) offered medication treatment for opioid use disorder more frequently, overdose deaths could be reduced, according to a Perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) co-authored by Michael Barnett of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Barnett, assistant professor of health policy and management, and co-author Sarah Wakeman of Massachusetts General Hospital said that office-based addiction treatment with buprenorphine—which can improve remission rates and reduce both medical complications and the likelihood of overdose death—could be a realistic solution for reaching the millions of Americans with opioid use disorder.
The article debunked several myths about buprenorphine, including the notion that it’s simply a replacement for opioids and that patients become addicted to it, and the idea that abstinence-based treatment is more effective than medication.
“Mobilizing the PCP workforce to offer office-based buprenorphine treatment is a plausible, practical, and scalable intervention that could be implemented immediately,” the authors wrote.
Read the NEJM article: Primary Care and the Opioid-Overdose Crisis—Buprenophine Myths and Realities
Read a Massachusetts General Hospital press release: Expanding primary care buprenorphine treatment could curb opioid overdose crisis
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An opioid emergency (Harvard Chan School podcast)