30-4

When a patient with an opioid use disorder (OUD) fails to respond to treatment—despite the best efforts of counselors in the substance use disorder (SUD) treatment program—the problem may be a co-occurring mental health disorder, perhaps one that hasn’t yet been diagnosed. Under federal law, opioid treatment programs (OTPs) using methadone or buprenorphine are required to … [Read more...] about Why Patients With OUDs and Co-Occurring Mental Illness May Have a Better Chance in an OTP Than in Other Treatments

In a report published in the July issue of Health Affairs, addiction specialist Jessica L. Gregg, MD, told the poignant story of a patient she called James. She’d met James when he was hospitalized with hallucinations and headaches caused by brain cancer. Dr. Gregg had been called in because James was also having symptoms related to heroin withdrawal. The day the two met, … [Read more...] about He Wanted to Live, But He Chose to Die—To Access Methadone

For months, the position of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) on the move to deregulate the prescribing of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) has been unclear. However, in a quiet move—a statement by Margaret A.E. Jarvis, MD, ASAM board member, in her testimony before the Congressional Bipartisan Opioid Task Force on July 23—the organization took … [Read more...] about Add ASAM to “X the x-waiver” Movement

A report out from the American Medical Association (AMA) this summer recommends closing the treatment gap to address the opioid epidemic. Buprenorphine was the main treatment focus. Noting that more than 66,000 physicians and other health care professionals now have a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine in-office for the treatment of opioid use disorder, the AMA said that … [Read more...] about Buprenorphine a Focus of AMA Opioid Task Force

A new program in New York has finally made it possible for methadone patients in the KEEP program at the New York City Rikers jail—the first behind-the-walls opioid treatment program (OTP) in the country—to continue their treatment if they are sentenced to incarceration upstate. The program, a partnership between NYC Health and Hospitals/Correctional Health Services, the New … [Read more...] about Methadone Now Allowed in Upstate NY Prison, If Inmates Come From Rikers OTP First