Thriving Mind South Florida Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Confirming early fears of accelerated drug overdose deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 100,000 Americans died last year of a drug overdose—the greatest overdose-involved loss of life in a single year (CDC, 2021). Medications, including buprenorphine and methadone, are considered the gold standard in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). In the face of surging overdose deaths, largely attributed to fentanyl, OUD medications remain highly underutilized. Despite significant cost savings and strong evidence demonstrating that these medications effectively cut the overdose death rate in half, few treatment programs offer OUD medications and only a small number of providers account for most of the buprenorphine prescribed in the U.S. Less than 40% of residential addiction treatment facilities offer OUD medications, and just 5% of prescribers in office-based treatment settings account for over half of all buprenorphine prescriptions. Greater availability of these medications, not only in addiction treatment settings, but in hospital emergency departments via integrated, low-threshold bridge clinic programs, is a requisite if America is to turn the tide on the opioid overdose crisis. Research findings documenting the effectiveness of OUD medications will be reviewed, and perceived barriers to adoption (patient and provider stigma, burdensome federal regulations, etc.) and potential solutions to close the treatment gap will be covered.
Learning Objectives:
After this activity participants should be able to
List all FDA-approved medications in the treatment of opioid use disorder.
Identify strengths and weaknesses associated with each medication based on published research.
Identify opportunities for integrating medications into their own program or practice.