Curbside Meds –
April 3, 2020 – The two medications, both narcotics, have been shown to be at least twice as effective at helping people stay in recovery from opioid addiction as therapies that do not include medications. (A third medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, naltrexone, sold in injectable form as Vivitrol, is not a controlled substance and doctors do not need a special license to prescribe it.)
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration ruled that methadone clinics could allow most patients to take home several days’ or weeks’ worth of medication, packaged in individual doses, instead of requiring them to show up at a clinic every day and risk exposure to the virus.
And the DEA gave physicians and nurses authorized to prescribe buprenorphine, which patients can take at home, the flexibility to begin patients on the drug using telemedicine and phones instead of an in-person visit, which has been required.
