For Success With Buprenorphine in Reducing Opioid Dependence and Addiction, Regular Physician Supervision May Be as Effective as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Yale Study Finds

摘要

Physicians who have been reluctant to add buprenorphine prescribing to their practices for patients with iatrogenic opioid dependence and addiction-but for whom it would be a barrier to add counseling services to the practice-could find encouragement in a Yale study published in the American Journal of Medicine. The article was published in the January 2013 issue of the journal (vol. 126, no. 1) and is available free online in full text. The data from the Yale study indicate that normal office-based physician supervision of patients taking buprenorphine could be just as effective as when formal cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is added to the treatment, in the primary outcome measured: preventing patients' use of illegal drugs.