Why We Fail to Maximize the Benefits of Methadone and Buprenorphine
Medication for anything only works if the patient takes enough. This is emphatically true for people taking medications for opioid use disorder. If they don’t get enough buprenorphine or methadone, they are likely to experience cravings and revert to using risky, often dangerously adulterated opioids. Yet far too often—thanks to undue fears and stigma, misinterpretation of evidence and misguided regulations—buprenorphine is prescribed at inadequate doses while the advantages of methadone are under-utilized.