STAT Plus: Despite evidence, many primary care doctors don’t want to prescribe medications for addiction
There are widely recommended medicines for treating opioid addiction, but one-third of primary care physicians believe the treatments are no more effective or safe than other approaches, such as counseling or a 12-step recovery program, according to a new survey.
Of three treatments that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for combating what is known clinically as opioid use disorder, just 7.6% of physicians reported prescribing buprenorphine and only 4% prescribed injectable naltrexone. (A third medicine, methadone, can be only dispensed for opioid use disorder as part of specialty treatment programs).
