PROVIDENCE – Medication-assisted treatment seems to be reducing the risk of overdose for Rhode Islanders with opioid addictions, a new report by the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston finds.
Still, people living in high-poverty areas are more likely to have access to just one type of medication rather than all three that are available, researchers say.
Rhode Islanders with low incomes tend to receive methadone, and may not have easy access to buprenorphine and nalaxone, two other medications commonly prescribed for opioid dependence.
In addition, those on Medicaid appear to be more likely to only receive methadone, while women are slightly less likely to receive either methadone or buprenorphine.
Medication appears to reduce subsequent overdose risk for people who have overdosed at least once, according to the report.
“Those who had received MAT [medication-assisted treatment] in the preceding three months were less likely to experience a second overdose,” it reads.
Changes in federal rules in regards to the way buprenorphine is distributed have helped in the Ocean State as well, researchers find.
“Federal policies that allowed a broader set of health care providers to prescribe buprenorphine for [opioid-use dependency] and enabled each prescriber to treat more patients with that drug are shown to have had some success in expanding the set of patients receiving MAT in Rhode Island,” the report reads.
Recommendations include considering whether pharmacists should be able to prescribe buprenorphine, relaxing rules on allowing doctors to prescribe the drug after telehealth visits with patients and revisiting restrictions that prohibit patients from taking doses of methadone at home.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
