DRUGS/FDA/HHS/SCOTT GOTTLIEB/TOM PRICE: “As the opioid epidemic in the U.S. continues to kill more and more Americans, the Food and Drug Administration wants to lift the stigma on the idea of using drugs to treat a drug habit.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told a U.S. House committee on Wednesday [10-25-17] that his agency is looking at ways to broaden the use of ‘medication-assisted therapy,’ or the use of drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine, in conjunction with counseling, to help people overcome addiction to opioids.
Some in the medical community, including former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, have looked down on using drugs to treat addiction to other drugs, instead favoring an approach that emphasizes changing behavior. Insurance companies have also been reluctant to cover drug-assisted therapy.
People who need medication to help them stop taking potentially deadly drugs should not be stigmatized, Gottlieb said…
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health recently found that patients who experienced a nonfatal overdose and were treated with methadone or buprenorphine were 50 percent less likely than those that didn’t receive the treatment to die of a subsequent overdose.”
-Anna Edney, “FDA Aims to Destigmatize Drugs as Treatment for Opioid Addiction,” Bloomberg, Oct. 25, 2017 07:28am