Buprenorphine Implementation Toolkit

Reducing overdose deaths

Overdose death happens when a person deliberately or accidentally misuses an illicit or prescription opioid. People who use heroin and those who use opioids for pain management are at risk for overdose.

The CDC reports that overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999, along with the sales of these prescription drugs.

See: How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose Deaths Ripples Across America

Buprenorphine reduces overdose deaths

Research shows that medication-assisted treatment with buprenorphine, as part of a comprehensive substance use disorder treatment plan, can help reduce the risk of overdose.

Increasing treatment with buprenorphine reduced heroin-related overdose deaths in Baltimore. 1

Opiate overdose deaths have declined by 79% since buprenorphine was introduced in France in 1995. 2

 

 

 

 

 


1 Schwartz, R. P., Gryczynski, J., O’Grady, K. E., Sharfstein, J. M., Warren, G., Olsen, Y., ... & Jaffe, J. H. (2013). Opioid agonist treatments and heroin overdose deaths in Baltimore, Maryland, 1995–2009. American journal of public health, 103(5), 917-922.

2 Auriacombe, M., Fatséas, M., Dubernet, J., Daulouede, J. P., & Tignol, J. (2004). French field experience with buprenorphine. American Journal on Addictions, 13(sup1), S17-S28.