News Notice
Friday, June 28, 2024
The NIH-supported study reveals the critical need to increase public awareness that opioid use disorder medications can be prescribed in primary care settings.
Results from a national survey show that many Americans, 61%, are unaware that primary care physicians can prescribe opioid use disorder medications, and 13% mistakenly believed they could not. The survey, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), also found that 82% of people who reported ever abusing prescription or illicit opioids expressed comfort in going to their primary care physicians for opioid use disorder medications. opioids. Among those who had not misused opioids, a majority, 74%, reported that they would be comfortable referring their loved ones to primary care for these medications.
Notably, black American respondents were more likely to mistakenly believe they could not obtain opioid use disorder medications through primary care, indicating a significant disparity in information that may further impede access to treatment. The findings suggest that there is a significant opportunity to increase awareness of and access to these treatments—using efforts that use culturally specific strategies to reach diverse groups. Decades of research have shown the overwhelming benefit of existing opioid use disorder medications, such as buprenorphine and methadone.
“Primary care is often people’s first point of contact in the health care system and can serve as a crucial setting to talk about addiction and receive lifesaving medications,” said Nora D. Volkow, MD, NIH Director. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “We need to provide education and support so that patients feel empowered to seek help from their primary care physician and their physicians feel prepared to help them.”
Recent federal policy changes have removed some barriers to buprenorphine prescribing by primary care physicians, such as specialized training requirements (elimination of the X waiver in 2023) and patient restrictions. Despite these changes, barriers to obtaining opioid use disorder medication remain. A recent study found that, in the year after the waiver requirement for buprenorphine prescriptions was eliminated, the number of prescribers increased, but the number of people receiving the medication did not.
Studies estimate that fewer than 2,500 physicians specialize in addiction medicine in the US With approximately 209,000 primary care physicians in the US, channeling addiction treatment through primary care could have a significant impact on public health.
Researchers at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, hypothesized that public health factors may hinder access to these drugs. They formulated survey questions on people’s awareness and comfort about treating opioid use disorders in primary care. In collaboration with NIDA, researchers added these questions to a survey conducted in English and Spanish by the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), led by NIDA and supported through the Long-Term Help to End Initiative addiction, or the NIH HEAL Initiative. . JCOIN researchers administered this survey in June 2023, targeting a nationally representative sample of adults aged 18 and older.
Among the 1,234 respondents, 57% were female, 43% were male, 12% were black, 15% were Hispanic/Latino, 68% were white, and 5% reported other or two or more races. Most respondents agreed (53%) or strongly agreed (24%) that a primary care physician’s office should be a place where people can receive treatment for an opioid use disorder.
“We’ve made great strides in making it easier for primary care physicians to prescribe these safe and effective treatments, but our study shows a critical disconnect between the need for opioid use disorder medications and people’s knowledge that how to access them, said Brandon del Pozo, Ph.D., assistant professor at Brown University’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine and Brown University School of Public Health and lead author of the study public perception all must be harmonized to improve access to treatment.
The authors note that future research should explore targeted strategies to increase public awareness and investigate the impact of increasing primary care physician involvement in the provision of opioid use disorder medications. Awareness campaigns similar to those for HIV testing and cancer screening—including educational materials in medical settings and proactive screening by primary care physicians—can help address this gap in public knowledge. By increasing public awareness and demand, primary care physicians may be more motivated to provide opioid use disorder medications, especially with appropriate clinical and administrative support, the authors say.
This study, published in JAMA Network Openwas supported by NIDA, with additional support from NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
NIH Helps End Long-Term AddictionSM and the NIH HEAL InitiativeSM are registered service marks of the Department of Health and Human Services.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. To learn how to get support for mental health or substance use conditions, visit FindSupport.gov. If you’re ready to find a facility or treatment provider, you can go directly to FindTreatment.gov or call 800-662-HELP (4357).
About the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute conducts a wide variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance the science of addiction. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit www.nida.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the national medical research agency, includes 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the US Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the lead federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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