WASHINGTON: A new study documents lost opportunities for drug treatment. overdose survivors Covered by Treatment shows the difficulty of program – and management chronic pain,

Overdose survivors “should be at the front of the line for a full range of medications, counseling and support,” said Dr. Brian Hurley, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, who was not involved in the study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Instead, those on Medicare who survived drug overdose were more likely to be received later in 2020 Opioid pain relievers It is more effective than any drug for treating drug addiction – and some people have even died from overdose.

US government researchers found that 53% of overdose survivors were prescribed opioid painkillers, while 4% were given treatments such as buprenorphine. Only 6% filled prescriptions for an overdose antidote NaloxoneWithin a year of the overdose, 17% of people suffered a second non-fatal overdose and 1% died from the overdose.

The researchers studied nearly 137,000 Medicare beneficiaries who survived overdoses in 2020, when drug treatment efforts were disrupted by the emergence of COVID-19.

About 30% of this group were people who qualified for Medicare because of a disability rather than their age. About 80% of them were treated for acute or chronic pain, and about half had prescriptions for opioids before the overdose.

In some situations, it may be appropriate to prescribe opioid medications even after an overdose, but “these patients should be closely monitored, given naloxone” and have plans in place to reduce the risk of overdose, said lead author Capt. Christopher Jones of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Gaps in treatment for overdose survivors exist across the US health care system These characteristics predate the pandemic and predate the pandemic, said Dr. Michael Barnett of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who was not involved in the new study. He found similar results among Medicare patients during 2016-2019.

“The health system is very poor at connecting people to life-saving medication after an overdose,” Barnett said. “It’s a health system problem. And it’s also a problem of stigma and public education that many people may not be interested in or trust medications for opioid use disorder.”

In 2020, Medicare expanded coverage Methadone to address a long-standing treatment shortfall. Methadone is the oldest, and experts say it is the most effective, of the three approved drugs used to treat opioid addiction. It reduces cravings without causing acute intoxication, helping patients rebuild their lives.

Medicare still doesn’t cover residential insurance Addiction Treatment”There’s another case that needs to be closed,” Hurley said.

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