Opioid Use Disorder News—2019 Updates

The following items highlight important news and publications about opioid use disorder (OUD) and medication-assisted treatment (MAT):

Department of Health and Human Services

• Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2013–2017 This study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths involved opioids in 2017 and that synthetic opioid-involved overdose mortality increased 45.2 percent between 2016 and 2017.
• Drugs Most Frequently Involved in Drug Overdose Deaths: United States, 2011–2016 (PDF—335 KB) This CDC report examines the specific drugs involved most frequently in drug overdose deaths between 2011 and 2016 in the United States.
• National Trends in High-Dose Chronic Opioid Utilization Among Dually Eligible and Medicare-Only Beneficiaries (2006-2015) (PDF—1.09 MB) This brief from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services examines prescription opioid use among two beneficiary populations.

Research Findings

• Sources of Opioid Medication for Misuse in Older Adults: Results From a Nationally Representative Survey This study in Pain identifies sources of misused opioid medications in adults 50 years and over and compares them with those of younger individuals.
• Overcoming Barriers to Prescribing Buprenorphine for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: Recommendations From Rural Physicians This study in the Journal of Rural Health aims to identify strategies to overcome common barriers to prescribing buprenorphine.

Other News

• Three Ways States Can Boost the Impact of New Federal Opioid Legislation on Medicaid's Health Homes Program This article from the Urban Institute describes lessons learned from States that have implemented Medicaid health homes for individuals with substance use disorders.
• Innovative Approaches Can Help Improve Availability of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment (PDF--475 KB) This brief from the Pew Charitable Trusts describes promising innovative treatment models that aim to improve patient outcomes among those with opioid use disorder.
• The Next Stage of Buprenorphine Care for Opioid Use Disorder This article in the Annals of Internal Medicine discusses the need to update and modify seven areas of common practice in buprenorphine treatment of opioid use disorder based on new evidence.
• Deprescribing Can Mean Fewer Opioids, More Grateful Patients This blog from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement discusses the need to decrease prescribing rates of opioids.
• Guest Comment: NIDA Science Seeks Solutions to the Opioid Crisis Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, wrote a guest editorial for ASAM on the institute’s initiatives to enhance pain management, prevent opioid use disorders and opioid-related overdoses, and improve the treatment of opioid use disorders.
• Addiction in America: The New War on Drugs U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams participated in discussions about the Nation’s opioid crisis in a series of Washington Post events.