An Ethical Imperative
“With only about 2000 OTP clinics clustered in urban areas, less than 25% of people who are diagnosed with opioid use disorder are actually able to access methadone,” Caty Simon, with the National Survivors Union, Greensboro, North Carolina, and coauthor of the JAMA Viewpoint, said in an interview.
While MOTAA represents a major step forward, limiting methadone prescribing to addiction specialists may not fully address the treatment gap, particularly in rural and underserved areas, Simon said.
To optimize methadone’s potential, she’d like to see further expansion of prescribing privileges to general healthcare providers.
“As someone with lived and living experience of opioid use and treatment, and somebody who works nationally and locally in organizations of people impacted by drug use, I know people in my area right now — marginalized people of color — who would have much better chances of survival if they were able to access methadone. If MOTAA passed tomorrow, we could save so many lives. There is an ethical imperative to pass it,” Simon said.
Leshner said he is “always very concerned about access, particularly for underserved populations, poor people, people living in rural areas. If you can access the medications you need, you’re in big trouble.”
Is this methadone’s moment? “I’m a little optimistic, but I haven’t seen the progress I would like to see,” Leshner said.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.