Opinion: Changing emergency doctors’ behaviors to promote wider use of medication for opioid use disorder

Emergency departments have become the front line in the battle against the epidemic of opioid use disorder, in part because they are the place individuals are brought after overdosing or during withdrawal. In addition, individuals with addiction are often marginalized from traditional sources of primary care, and so often default to using what is available to them: emergency departments.

Our nation’s emergency departments have seen a nearly 100% increase since 2005 in visits by patients seeking help related to opioid addiction. The rates of hospitalizations related to opioid addiction rose 64% over the same period.

Fortunately, there is an effective treatment for opioid addiction that emergency doctors can begin. Called medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), it found that only 7% of U.S. emergency departments currently have protocols to prescribe buprenorphine for emergency department patients looking for treatment for their opioid addiction.