Patrick: Study Reveals Opioid Patients Face Multiple Barriers to Treatment
While the opioid crisis has escalated across the U.S., there has been growing concern that treatment capacity has not kept pace. In 2016, more than 42,000 Americans died of an opioid-related overdose, more than any year on record. Opioid agonist therapies, like buprenorphine and methadone, have been shown to reduce risk of overdose death, and for pregnant women with opioid use disorder this benefit extends to the baby — making it more likely the infant will be born at term and with higher birthweights.
“This work sheds further light on a critical public health problem facing pregnant women and their children and the importance of connecting pregnant women to the right resources,” said senior author William Cooper, MD, MPH, vice chair the Department of Pediatrics and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy.
“This work sheds further light on a critical public health problem facing pregnant women and their children and the importance of connecting pregnant women to the right resources,” said senior author William Cooper, MD, MPH, vice chair the Department of Pediatrics and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy.
“We know that opioid agonist therapies work but only a fraction of people that have opioid use disorder are actually getting them. With this study, we wanted to know if there were structural issues in terms of providers, or insurance type, or being pregnant itself, that may be a reason for that barrier,” said Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.