Healio (6/1, Miller) reports, “Most buprenorphine treatment provided in the U.S. was prescribed by a small proportion of clinicians,” researchers concluded in “an analysis of retail pharmacy records.” For the study, utilizing “information collected between January 2017 and December 2018 from the health information technology and clinical research firm IQVIA,” the study team “analyzed data on 50,509 clinicians who prescribed buprenorphine formulations for opioid use disorder at least once for 14,458,729 patient months of care.” Researchers found that “most of the clinicians were primary care physicians (43.8%), advanced practice practitioners (20.6%), pain specialists (8%) and psychiatrists (14.7%).” The study also revealed that “50% of all patient months of buprenorphine treatment were prescribed by 4.9% of the studied clinicians.” The findings were published in a research letter in JAMA.
Related Links:
— “Small percentage of clinicians write most buprenorphine prescriptions “Janel Miller, Healio, June 1, 2021