Federal regulators have relaxed restrictions on physicians prescribing the opioid addiction treatment drug buprenorphine to patients. –American Medical News
This is really good for the drug companies but not so good for addicts and their families. The doctors that are “trained” many times do not understand addiction. Many times they do not require abstinence from other drugs and rarely push the issue of treatment. Opioid replacement is a good option for many people, but my experience has shown that the people that were addicted to other drugs prior to opioid addiction, or started heavily abusing drugs at an early age don’t do as well. They tend to have a poor quality of life, and continuously relapse. More doctors that are untrained regarding addiction and prescribing this drug is not the answer. Methadone clinics require urine drug screening and participation in some sort of treatment participation, shouldn’t we have the same expectation for this form of opioid replacement.
