Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Treatment Evidence topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Local addiction specialist urges wider use of methadone, buprenorphine and long‑acting formulations to reduce overdose deaths
Summary
Dr. Amy Burns reviewed evidence for methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, highlighted long‑acting injectable options and described common barriers and misconceptions that limit access to medication‑based treatment for opioid use disorder.
Dr. Amy Burns, an addiction‑medicine specialist and psychiatrist, told a Spokane audience that medication‑based treatments for opioid use disorder—methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone—substantially reduce overdose deaths and overall mortality, and that widening access should be a cornerstone of local response efforts.
“Methadone saves lives,” Dr. Burns said, summarizing large studies comparing mortality for people actively using opioids to those receiving methadone. She described buprenorphine as a partial agonist that reduces cravings and carries a lower risk of respiratory depression; she highlighted long‑acting injectable buprenorphine (commercially marketed as Sublocade and Brixadi) as an option that can protect a patient from an overdose for weeks at a time.
Burns cited specific outcomes she said are supported by research: roughly 50% of patients who start buprenorphine remain on it one year later, and discontinuation of agonist therapies is associated with sharply increased mortality risk, particularly in the first month after stopping. She said relapse is common—“about 80%” within a year after stopping treatment in some studies—and that abstinence‑only residential treatment without medication can leave patients at higher short‑term overdose risk once they return to the community.
She listed common barriers that limit access to medication treatments: program inflexibility, insurance and copay barriers, limited immediate access when patients are ready to start treatment, and stigma that discourages people from seeking care. Burns described successful models elsewhere, including 24/7 prescriber‑access programs that can quickly initiate buprenorphine and deliver medication to a nearby pharmacy.
On adjunctive care, Burns said psychosocial interventions—motivational interviewing, peer support, contingency management and broad behavioral supports—are valuable complements to medication but that evidence is strongest for medications in preventing overdose death.
“Take‑home points: methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone reduce relapse and mortality,” Burns told the audience, and added that relapse should be anticipated and planned for as part of a long‑term care strategy.
