Andrew Herring, an emergency medicine specialist, vividly remembers the first person he treated with buprenorphine. The patient, seeking opioid pills for a "spider bite," learned about Herring's trial program for treating addiction to powerful opioids like heroin with buprenorphine, an opioid itself. Impressed by the patient's honesty and desire to escape addiction, Herring prescribed buprenorphine.
This occurred in 2016, following a groundbreaking study published by Yale School of Medicine researchers. The study divided participants, primarily heroin or prescription opioid users, into three groups. One received a referral to external addiction treatment services. Another received the referral plus a brief hospital counseling session. The third group received both the referral and counseling, along with daily buprenorphine tablets. After a month, this last group was twice as likely as the others to remain in treatment. Buprenorphine significantly increased their treatment adherence and reduced their risk of fatal overdose.
5 Comments
Raphael
“Prescribing buprenorphine seems like a band-aid solution that ignores the root causes of addiction.”
Michelangelo
“The story of the patient with the ‘spider bite’ is a reminder that honesty and seeking help deserve support.”
Leonardo
“It’s refreshing to see modern medicine embrace innovative, research-driven methods to combat opioid addiction.”
Donatello
“We need to consider whether this policy creates new dependencies rather than truly solving addiction.”
Michelangelo
“I worry that normalizing opioid treatment might encourage misuse and dependency among patients.”