Press release
Friday June 28, 2024
An NIH-funded study reveals a critical need to increase public awareness that opioid use disorder medications can be prescribed in primary care settings.
Results of a national survey indicate that many Americans, 61%, are unaware that primary care doctors can prescribe medications for opioid use disorder, and 13% incorrectly thought they could not. couldn’t. The survey, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), also found that 82% of people who reported ever abusing prescription or illicit opioids said they were comfortable seeing their doctor treating for medication for opioid use disorder. Among those who had not abused opioids, a majority, 74 percent, said they would be comfortable referring their loved ones to primary care for these medications.
Notably, Black American respondents were most likely to falsely believe they could not receive opioid use disorder medications through primary care, highlighting an important disparity in information that can further hinder access to treatment. The findings suggest that there is an important opportunity to increase awareness of these treatments and how to access them – using efforts that employ culturally specific strategies to reach different groups. Decades of research have shown significant benefits of existing medications for opioid use disorder, such as buprenorphine and methadone.
“Primary health care is often patients’ first point of contact with the health system and can provide a critical setting for talking about addiction and receiving life-saving medications,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D. and director of the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “We need to provide education and support so that patients feel empowered to ask their primary care physician for help and their physicians feel prepared to help them.” »
Recent federal policy changes have removed some barriers to prescribing buprenorphine by primary care physicians, such as specialty training requirements (eliminating Waiver X in 2023) and patient caps. Despite these changes, barriers to obtaining medication for opioid use disorder remain. A recent study found that in the year after the waiver requirement for prescribing buprenorphine was eliminated, the number of prescribers increased, but not the number of people given the drug.
Studies estimate that fewer than 2,500 doctors specialize in addiction medicine in the United States. With approximately 209,000 primary care physicians in the United States, channeling addiction treatment through primary care could have a significant impact on public health.
Researchers at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, hypothesize that public health factors could hinder access to these drugs. They formulated survey questions about people’s awareness and comfort with treating opioid use disorder in primary care. Working 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 by the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative. . JCOIN researchers conducted this survey in June 2023, targeting a nationally representative sample of adults ages 18 and older.
Of the 1,234 respondents, 57% were women, 43% were men, 12% were black, 15% were Hispanic/Latino, 68% were white, and 5% reported one 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 a opioid use disorder.
“We have made great strides in making it easier for primary care physicians to prescribe these safe and effective treatments, but our study indicates a critical disconnect between the need for medications for opioid use disorder and knowledge people about how to access it,” said Brandon del Pozo, Ph.D., assistant professor at Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine and Brown University School of Public Health and author principal of the study. “Science, public health, insurance, policy and public perception must all align to improve access to treatment. »
The authors note that future research should explore targeted strategies to improve public awareness and study the impact of increasing primary care physician involvement in providing medications for opioid use disorder. Awareness campaigns similar to those for HIV and cancer screening—including educational materials in medical settings and proactive screening by primary care physicians—can help fill this gap in public knowledge. By increasing public awareness and demand, primary care physicians may be more likely to offer medications for opioid use disorder, especially with appropriate clinical and administrative support, the authors say.
This study, published in Open JAMA Networkwas supported by NIDA, with additional support from the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
NIH Helps End Long-Term Drug AddictionSM and 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 find out how to get support for mental health or substance use issues, visit FindSupport.gov. If you are ready to locate a facility or treatment provider, you can contact us directly at 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, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports much of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute conducts a wide range 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 nation’s health research agency, is comprised of 27 institutes and centers and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research and studies 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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