People addicted to opioids rarely get life-saving medications. That may change.
People addicted to opioids rarely get life-saving medications. That may change.
December 17, 20225:00 AM ET
BRIAN MANN at NPR
Methadone and other opioid-addiction medications are proven to save lives. But most people addicted to fentanyl, heroin and pain pills never get medical treatment.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/17/1143053704/people-addicted-to-opioids-rarely-get-life-saving-medications-that-may-change
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Buprenorphine and methadone reduce cravings for opioids and ease withdrawal symptoms, helping people avoid relapses and deadly overdoses.
"If somebody has access to these life-saving medications, it cuts their mortality risk by 50 percent," says Dr. Linda Wang, a researcher who treats patients with addiction at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
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But as fatal opioid overdoses surge in the U.S., topping 80,000 deaths last year, access to these medications remains severely limited.
Wang says in part that's because of complex, often punitive federal regulations that restrict how these medicines are prescribed and dispensed.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
is actually $$$ (and prejudice).
Bupe is typically dispensed from private practices, which is great in many ways vs. the 'methadone clinic' scenario that requires new patients (and depending on your tests, old patients too) to show up for their dose every damn day, handed to the patient, who is observed to take it. A Bupe doc OTOH can Rx a month's supply at once (though this may require earning some trust as well).
Thing is ... these doctors often treat non-opioid-dependent patients, too. These are mostly regular practices who've gotten the Federal cert required to dispense it (which is no big deal to get for any reputable MD, and I'd imagine NP).
As such, they tend to set the 'start-up' prices very high, IMHO it's to favor more well-off patients, who they judge are more likely to a) be better behaved, and b) be able to pay. Many of them won't deal with insurance companies, it's a 'pay cash as you go' type of deal.
This is both a means to maximize profits, AND to keep the riff-raff out of their waiting rooms.
There's also ways that the DEA interferes to be sure, but a lot of it is the doctors themselves.
Bottom-line, we need more buprenorphine clinics, paid for with government funds (as methadone clinics largely are IIRC) in many more places.
People addicted to opioids seeking treatment are VERY often broke and unemployed by the time they seek treatment. It's called 'hitting rock bottom'. Doesn't mean many of us aren't decent people 
