Only 1 in 4 Adolescent Treatment Facilities Offers Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder

Only a quarter of U.S. residential treatment facilities for adolescents offer buprenorphine, and only 11% offer buprenorphine for ongoing treatment, according to astudy published this week inJAMA. Buprenorphine is the only medication for opioid use disorder approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in those aged 16 to 18 years.“Residential treatment facilities provide an opportunity to reach young people with a range of evidence-based supports at a pivotal time in their lives, and it is crucial that buprenorphine is made available as one of those options,” Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), said in anews release. NIDA supported the study along with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.Caroline King, Ph.D., M.P.H., of Oregon Health& Science University School of Medicine and colleagues identified all adolescent residential addiction treatment facilities in the United States using the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Treatment Locator and Google advertising data. They conducted “secret shopper” surveys—they called the facilities and said they were seeking care for a 16-year-old who recently experienced a fentanyl overdose. The callers said they were the patient’s aunt or uncle to make calls more plausible if they did not know specific details about the adolescent. Each facility was called up to seven times on different days. The authors asked specific qu...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: adolescents buprenorphine JAMA medication-assisted treatment opioid use disorder secret shopper Source Type: research