doc
Spring 2016 • Kentucky
medication with abuse potential, diversion
is likely to follow, making it unsurprising
that buprenorphine diversion has been
documented.”2 They stressed that despite
the documented diversion, Buprenorphine
products were clinically effective and safe
for the treatment of opioid dependence.
Buprenorphine’s safety profile, ceiling effect
at high doses, and its ability to be co-formulated with naloxone to limit injection abuse
and lower abuse potential compared to full
opioid agonists make it a suitable medication
for office-based treatment of opioid dependency. The authors recommended, “Strong
consideration should also be given to the
medical, social, public health, and economic
benefits that arise when opioid-dependent
individuals use buprenorphine in a therapeutic manner to self-treat addiction and
withdrawal symptoms or as a harm reduction
approach to manage the risks associated with
drug dependence.”2
The key driver of the overdose epidemic
is the underlying substance-use disorder
(SUD). SUD is a chronic disease and similar to other chronic diseases (i.e., diabetes,
hypertension), SUD is generally refractory to
cure; but, effective treatment and functional
recovery are possible. As the evidence-based
medicine studies demonstrated, medicationassisted therapies (MAT) are available; but,
these modal ]Y\