Physician-pharmacist collaboration may increase adherence to opioid addiction treatment according to a new study published this week in Addiction. The research team consists of 3 Duke GIM Faculty members, including first author, Dr. Li-Tzy Wu, and co-authors Drs. Lynn Bowlby and Larry Greenblatt.
The investigators studied the transfer of care of 71 participants using buprenorphine maintenance therapy for opioid use disorder from waivered physicians to trained community pharmacists. The researchers found nearly 89% of participants remained in the study and 95.3% adhered to the daily medication regimen. During the 6-month trial, no opioid-related emergencies or hospitalizations were reported. The proportion of opioid-positive urine drug screens was less than 5% at month 6 among participants who completed all urine drug screens in the study. Participants, physicians, and pharmacists all reported high rates of satisfaction with the program.