The Article in Brief
Barriers to Primary Care Physicians Prescribing Buprenorphine
Roger A. Rosenblatt , and colleagues
Background Buprenorphine-naloxone is a highly effective outpatient treatment for opioid addiction, yet few physicians offer it. In an earlier project, 120 physicians were trained to prescribe buprenorphine. This study determined what proportion of the trainees began prescribing it and identified barriers to incorporating this approach into outpatient practice
What This Study Found Of the 78 physicians interviewed, 22 (28%) reported prescribing buprenorphine, though almost all reported positive attitudes toward the treatment. Commonly-cited barriers included a lack of mental health and psychosocial support, time constraints, and a lack of specialty, institutional and partner support.
Implications
- Interventions before and after training could help increase the number of physicians who offer buprenorphine for treatment of addiction.
- Targeting physicians in clinics that agree in advance to institute services, coupled with technical assistance after training is completed, could help more physicians become active providers of buprenorphine.