Note from the Director

Increasing access to buprenorphine for treating OUD is currently a national focus, as fatal overdose deaths in 2020 were the most ever, and recent systematic reviews emphasize the extent to which medication treatment for OUD can reduce mortality. This newsletter features several recent studies on this topic. In one, Center researchers identified clinicians who prescribed buprenorphine for OUD at least once in a two-year period in national retail pharmacy data. They found that only a small number of high-volume prescribers are responsible for half of the buprenorphine treatment being provided, and more than half of prescribers had not treated any patients in more than half the months in the two-year period. But most high-volume prescribers are allowed to treat more patients. Implications of these findings for increasing the availability of buprenorphine are discussed in the Key Takeaway of this study.

This newsletter also includes some of our methodological work that may be helpful to researchers examining the effects of state policies and initiatives. Center researchers recently offered a webinar titled State-Level Opioid Policy Analyses: Moving Beyond the Classic Difference-in-Differences Model. Drs. Beth Ann Griffin, Megan Schuler, and Elizabeth Stuart discussed key methodological challenges faced when evaluating the effectiveness of state-level policy using annual state-level data, as well as potential solutions and practice guidelines. OPTIC Webinar video recordings and slides are available on the OPTIC Resources page.

As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions at OPTIC@rand.org.

Stay safe. – Bradley Stein, Director OPTIC