Washington sees steep rise, then slow down in prescriptions to treat opioid addiction

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Washington’s medical professionals nearly tripled the state’s prescribing rate of buprenorphine, an opioid addiction treatment medication, after federal regulations were loosened — but the COVID-19 pandemic undercut those gains.

That’s according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health supported by the state Department of Health, which analyzed monthly data on buprenorphine prescriptions in Washington from 2012 to 2022.

The study attributes rising rates to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a federal law passed in 2016, which allowed nurse practitioners and physician assistants to prescribe buprenorphine for the first time, instead of only physicians with specific training.

But the pandemic slowed the rising rates of nurse practitioners and physician assistants prescribing buprenorphine, said Fan Xiong, senior epidemiologist at the Department of Health and one of the study’s authors. That’s in line with what happened nationally.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/06/19/washington-sees-steep-rise-then-slow-down-in-prescriptions-to-treat-opioid-addiction/