Teens Addicted to Opioids May Not Get Lifesaving Addiction Medication at Treatment Centers

TEENAGE WASTEDLAND –

June 15, 2023 – Only 1 in 4 residential addiction treatment programs for teenagers provide buprenorphine — or even know what it is, according to research published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Buprenorphine, usually a small pill or film that dissolves under the tongue, is “lifesaving medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder, and it happens to be the only one that’s FDA approved for people 16 and older,” said Dr. Todd Korthuis, one of the study’s authors, as well as a professor of medicine and head of addiction medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.

“It’s clearly the gold standard for treatment,” he said.

Live-in rehab programs can charge anywhere from $5,000 to more than $17,000, with most requiring payment up front, according to a 2021 study. Yet, there’s a critical need for effective intervention.According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.2 million people 12 and older were abusing opioids, including the highly potent fentanyl.

And fatal overdoses involving fentanyl among children ages 10 to 19 increased by 182% from 2019 to 2021.

“The risk of mortality is very high,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “But we know that one of the best interventions for preventing those overdoses is administration of buprenorphine.” NIDA helped fund the new research.