New Law Help Doctors Treat Opioid Patients

doctors prescription pad

In the past, far too many patients who were prescribed an opioid for pain had the opioid prescription terminated then quickly went into withdrawal and forced to find a way to cope by using illegal forms of opioid-related street drugs often laced with Fentanyl a deadly synthetic opioid.

The swift onset of opioid withdrawal often catches a patient off-guard, leaving them unprepared for the suffering caused by withdrawal. The symptoms of opioid withdrawal can be physically and mentally agonizing.

• It is alarming that opioids can often lead to withdrawal symptoms, tolerance and even dependence in just a matter of days.

How Addiction Gap Can Help

Encourage medical professionals to:

Directly provide and participate in MAT detoxification and, when necessary, ongoing treatment. Refer opioid patients to a licensed, suboxone doctor expert for needed treatment.

  1. Creating and distributing materials regarding this issue
  2. Make direct contact with doctors, nurses, hospitals, medical groups and organization to help instigate these concepts
  3. Create and distribute videos

Addiction Gap’s initiative is to help educate and encourage doctors and nurse practitioners to get more involved in recognizing and either treating patient’s opioid withdrawal and abstinence or to refer them to the nationwide network of opioid treatment experts.

We can do this in the following ways:

  1. Promote Health Care Professionals Involvement in Treating Opioid Issues

Earlier this year, the federal government passed legislation making it much easier for doctors and nurse practitioners to play a far more active role in reducing the opioid crisis. The legislation is called the “Waiver Elimination Act.” It removes the federal requirement to obtain special federal licensure (waiver) prior to being able to prescribe MAT.

2. Improving the Referral Networking From PCPs to Opioid Treatment Experts

Some Primary Care Physicians (PCP) are not familiar with the opioid treatment expert network. Addiction Gap believes this is an additional path to increase the treatment of patients on or withdrawing from opioids by:

  • Bridging opioid patient’s access to the existing nationwide network of licensed and trained opioid dependency medical professionals.
  • Patient education of both the rapid onset of opioid dependency and the safe, best practice detoxification options
  • Encouraging opioid prescribers to take an even greater role in monitoring and limiting the dispensing of opioids. Making opioid prescribers the link to applying buprenorphine detox methodology, managed either by themselves or local expert.

Read about how France solved their opioid epidemic.

Please note: Addiction Gap is in no way affiliated with or receives compensation from any manufacturer of Buprenorphine products.

References

  1. CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2017).
  2. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
  3. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
  4. Annals of Internal Medicine (2018).
  5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
  6. Cicero TJ, Ellis MS, Surratt HL. The Changing Face of Heroin Use in the United States: A Retrospective Analysis of the Past 50 Years. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014.

Studies

Hsu, Y. J., Marsteller, J. A., Kachur, S. G., & Fingerhood, M. I. (2019). Integration of Buprenorphine Treatment with Primary Care: Comparative
Effectiveness on Retention, Utilization, and Cost. Popul Health Manag, 22(4), 292-299. doi:10.1089/pop.2018.0163
Ronquest, N. A., Willson, T. M., Montejano, L. B., Nadipelli, V. R., & Wollschlaeger, B. A. (2018). Relationship between buprenorphine
adherence and relapse, health care utilization and costs in privately and publicly insured patients with opioid use disorder. Subst Abuse Rehabil,
9, 59-78. doi:10.2147/SAR.S150253
Eren, K., Schuster, J., Herschell, A., Loveland, D., Neimark, G., Mihalyo, M., . . . Ryan, N. (2022). Association of Counseling and Psychotherapy
on Retention in Medication for Addiction Treatment Within a Large Medicaid Population. J Addict Med, 16(3), 346-353.
doi:10.1097/ADM.0000000000000914
Mutter, R., Spencer, D., & McPheeters, J. (2022). Factors Associated With Initial Treatment Choice, Engagement, and Discontinuation for
Patients With Opioid Use Disorder. Psychiatr Serv, 73(6), 604-612. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.202100239