The ongoing efforts to reduce prescribing of opioids should have an effect on opioid treatment programs (OTPs), because some of the patients who are being told they can’t get prescriptions anymore are addicted, officials and experts told AT Forum last month. “I think OTPs have an opportunity here to partner with not just pain specialists, but with primary care doctors and … [Read more...] about The Intersection of Pain and Addiction: OTPs Brace For More Patients
2015
Mark Parrino: Policy Responses to Opioid Epidemic Should Include Comprehensive Treatment
During the past year, key government agencies, medical associations, policy makers, the media, and families have finally realized that we’re in the midst of the worst opioid addiction crisis in our nation’s history. Record numbers of people are overdosing and dying. We can’t read a newspaper or watch television without learning about the tragic effects of the epidemic on the … [Read more...] about Mark Parrino: Policy Responses to Opioid Epidemic Should Include Comprehensive Treatment
Barriers to OTP Expansion
There’s a question on the minds of everyone who is involved with opioid treatment programs (OTPs) and reads the headlines: If we’re in such a dire opioid epidemic, why hasn’t methadone treatment, proven effective for more than 50 years, been expanded? We contacted Robert Lubran, MS, MPA, director of the division of pharmacotherapies at the Center for Substance Abuse … [Read more...] about Barriers to OTP Expansion
Providing Naloxone to OTP Patients and Family Members: A Good Idea
Five patients at the opioid treatment program (OTP) where Jana Burson, MD, serves as medical director have rescued people—not patients—with naloxone they obtained from her OTP. “That’s a powerful agent of change for the person who does the reviving,” said Dr. Burson, because the rescuer is an OTP patient – and maybe the person rescued will see addiction treatment as an option, … [Read more...] about Providing Naloxone to OTP Patients and Family Members: A Good Idea
Profiling and Comparing Opioid Users: A Possible Tool for Intervention
In the August/September issue of the Addiction Treatment Forum newsletter we discussed a review article, “Long-Term Course of Opioid Addiction,” published in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The article highlighted recent research suggesting that the profiles of opioid users (e.g., sociodemographics, other drug use, and services used) vary, according to the type of opioid … [Read more...] about Profiling and Comparing Opioid Users: A Possible Tool for Intervention