Opioid Use Disorders and Existing Clients

One of the most compelling reasons physicians may opt to become buprenorphine prescribers is that they’re already seeing patients with opioid use disorders in their regular practice—just not for their opioid use disorder.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that:

“Heroin use has increased across the US among men and women, most age groups, and all income levels. Some of the greatest increases occurred in demographic groups with historically low rates of heroin use: women, the privately insured, and people with higher incomes.”1

A 2016 report issued by FAIR Health, a national, independent, nonprofit organization, found that the current opioid epidemic is “disproportionally affecting white, middle-class people in non-urban settings, including those with health insurance.”2

Read how one doctor in Maine began prescribing Suboxone after losing patients to overdose: A Small Town Bands Together To Provide Opioid Addiction Treatment

Current prescribers and physician education forums could also help other doctors recognize that they may already be treating patients with opioid use disorders.

 

 

 

 

 


1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Today’s Heroin Epidemic: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heroin/

2 The Opioid Crisis among the Privately Insured: The Opioid Abuse Epidemic as Documented in Private Claims Data http://www.fairhealth.org/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=01532000001nwD2