“The committee recommends that states, with assistance from relevant federal agencies, particularly the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provide universal access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), including use of medication, in a variety of settings, including hospitals, criminal justice settings, and substance use treatment programs. Efforts to this end should be carried out with particular intensity in communities with a high burden of OUD. State licensing bodies should require training in treatment for OUD for all licensed substance use disorder treatment facilities and providers (Recommendation 5-6). The committee recommends that schools for health professional education, professional societies, and state licensing boards require and provide basic training in the treatment of opioid use disorder for health care providers, including but not limited to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, physician assistants, psychologists, and social workers (Recommendation 5-7). The committee recommends that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state health financing agencies remove impediments to full coverage of medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of opioid use disorder (Recommendation 5-8). ”
In the context of the growing opioid problem, the FDA launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. One component of the FDA plan is to reassess the agency’s risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring. The FDA commissioned this study specifically to inform this reassessment. Read Full Study Here