Survey: Most Americans do not know PCPs can prescribe opioid use disorder treatment

Key takeaways:

• About 54% of adults agreed that people should be able to receive OUD treatment in primary care.
• Half of adults who ever misused opioids said they would be very comfortable receiving treatment from a PCP.

More than six in 10 Americans were unaware that primary care providers can prescribe treatment for opioid use disorder, or OUD, according to survey results published in JAMA Network Open.

“Primary care is often people’s first point of contact in the health care system and can serve as a crucial setting to talk about addiction and receive lifesaving medications,” NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora D. Volkow, MD, said in a press release. “We need to provide education and support so that patients feel empowered to seek help from their PCP, and their doctors feel prepared to help them.”

Recent policy changes have eased restrictions on buprenorphine prescribing, such as the removal of the “X waiver” and patient caps, according to the release. However, significant barriers to prescribing and access remain.

In June 2023, Brandon del Pozo, PhD, an assistant professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, and colleagues surveyed a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States (n = 1,234; 56.5% women; 68.4% white) to assess their knowledge and beliefs regarding the availability and prescribing of medications for OUD (MOUD) in primary care settings.

The researchers found that 61.4% of respondents did not know PCPs could prescribe MOUD, and 13.3% incorrectly believed they could not. Black respondents (20.9%) were most likely to believe they could not receive MOUD from a PCP.

Additionally, 53.9% of respondents agreed and 24.9% of respondents strongly agreed that a PCP office should be a place where people can receive MOUD.

Among respondents who reported ever misusing illicit or prescription opioids, 50.6% said they would be very comfortable and 30.7% said they would be somewhat comfortable personally seeking MOUD from their PCP.

Meanwhile, among respondents with no history of opioid misuse, 31.9% said they would be very comfortable and 42% would be somewhat comfortable referring someone they cared about to their PCP for MOUD.

The findings show “the approximately 209,000 PCPs in the U.S. [are] positioned to play a decisive role in expanding access to buprenorphine,” del Pozo and colleagues wrote.

The researchers outlined interventions that they said could help raise awareness of the important role of PCPs in prescribing MOUD, which include:

• campaigns such as those offered for HIV testing and cancer screening;
• literature and signs about MOUD in waiting rooms and examination rooms; and
• proactively screening for OUD and prescribing MOUD as indicated.

“We’ve made great strides in making it easier for primary care doctors to prescribe these safe and effective treatments, but our study indicates a critical disconnect between the need for MOUD and people’s knowledge about how to access them,” del Pozo said in the release. “Science, public health, insurance, policy, and public perception all must align to improve access to treatment.”

References:

• del Pozo B, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.19094.
• Most Americans don’t know that primary care physicians can prescribe addiction treatment. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/most-americans-don-t-know-primary-care-physicians-can-prescribe-addiction-treatment. Published June 28, 2024. Accessed June 28, 2024.