Why are doctors underusing a drug to treat opioid addiction?
Two opioid replacement medications are currently approved for opioid use disorder: methadone , which under federal law must be dispensed from authorized clinics, and buprenorphine, which can be used to treat opioid addiction in the privacy of a physician's office, so long as the physician has the proper waivers. "Though it was widely believed that allowing physicians to prescribe this drug in a primary care setting would increase the number of patients receiving treatment, the number of physicians adopting this therapy has not kept pace with the magnitude of the opioid epidemic," said Andrew Huhn, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Buprenorphine was approved for the treatment of opioid use disorder in 2002 with the requirement that physicians apply for a waiver from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in order to prescribe the drug in primary care settings. Its mechanism of action is similar to methadone's but not...