Abstract
Opioid use disorder is a serious public health problem. Management with buprenorphine is an effective, office-based, medication-assisted treatment, but 60.1% of rural counties in the United States lack a physician with a Drug Enforcement Agency waiver to prescribe buprenorphine. This national study surveyed all rural physicians who have received a waiver in the United States and found that those who were not actively prescribing buprenorphine reported significantly more barriers than those who were, regardless of whether they were treating the maximum number of patients their waiver allowed. These findings suggest the need for tailored strategies to address barriers to providing buprenorphine for opioid use disorder and to support physicians who are adding or maintaining this service.
- buprenorphine
- opiate substitution treatment
- rural health
- mental health care
- opiate addiction
- opioid treatment programs
- medication-assisted treatment
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: authors report none.
Supplementary materials: Available at http://www.annfammed.org/content/15/4/359/suppl/DC1.
Funding support: This study was supported by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, Health Resources and Services Administration, US Department of Health and Human Services.
- Received for publication January 31, 2017.
- Revision received May 2, 2017.
- Accepted for publication May 9, 2017.
- © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
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