Helping ‘Them’: Our Role in Recovery From Opioid Dependence

The Article in Brief

With the crisis of opioid addiction in the United States growing at a rapid pace, a family doctor reflects on his experience in treating addicts with buprenorphine, an office-based treatment for opioid dependence. The author acknowledges that opioid addiction is no longer limited to inner-city neighborhoods; it has infiltrated the mill towns and fishing villages of his home state of Maine. In this essay, he recounts his experience in treating addicted patients and the challenges, frustrations, and satisfactions of establishing and running a treatment program.