Study: More doctors can prescribe addiction treatment

But, little change in the number of people taking the medication

It’s easier than ever for doctors to prescribe a key medicine for opioid addiction since the U.S. government lifted an obstacle last year. But despite the looser restrictions and the ongoing overdose crisis, a new study finds little change in the number of people taking the medication.

Researchers analyzed prescriptions filled by U.S. pharmacies for the treatment drug buprenorphine. The number of prescribers rose last year after doctors no longer needed to get a special waiver to prescribe the drug, while the number of patients filling prescriptions barely budged.

It may take more than one year to see a bigger increase in patients, said study co-author Dr. Kaoping Chua of the University of Michigan Medical School.

“There are so many other barriers to prescribing that we have to address,” said Chua. said Dr. Ryan Marino of

The findings were Case Western Reserve published Wednesday in University School of the New England Journal Medicine in Cleveland of Medicine. who has treated hundreds

Buprenorphine, of people with buprenorphine. which helps with cravings, He had no comes in a pill or role in the study. film that dissolves under Barriers include insurance the tongue. It costs hurdles, price, about $100 a month. A pharmacies that don’t common version of buprenorphine stock the drug and doctors is Suboxone. who believe patients Nurse practitioners, with addiction take up physician assistants too much time, Chua and and doctors can other experts said. prescribe it. “There’s a lot of stigma

“People think this is a about this medication, very complicated medicine and just in general and that it requires about patients with

nd some sort of complex opioid addiction,” Chua knowledge to use, when said. that’s just not the case,” In addition, some people may not want to try buprenorphine, Chua said. They may think they can’t truly recover if they’re using the opioid-based medication, he said. And it can trigger withdrawal symptoms, especially in people who’ve been using fentanyl, the powerful opioid now dominating the drug supply.

The researchers used a database that captures 92% of filled prescriptions. Comparing 2022 and 2023, before and after the waiver was eliminated, they found 53,600 prescribers at the end of 2023, a 27% increase compared to a year earlier. The number of people filling prescriptions rose about 2% to around 845,000.

The government should look for ways to encourage and even compel hospitals and health systems to provide more treatment, said Brendan Saloner, an addiction researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study.

More doctors are prescribing buprenorphine, but “getting the bulk of the medical profession to catch up is taking too long,” Saloner said.