• Kristi Lynn Stringer, Kirsten J Langdon, Michelle McKenzie, Brad Brockmann, and Phillip Marotta.
• Social Intervention Group, Columbia University, NY, New York, United States of America; The Lifespan/Brown Criminal Justice Research Training Program on Substance Use, HIV, and Comorbidities, Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, Brown University, United States of America. Electronic address: ks3592@columbia.edu.
• J Subst Abuse Treat. 2021 Apr 1; 123: 108263.

AbstractThe U.S. government declared the opioid epidemic as a national public health emergency in 2017, but regulatory frameworks that govern the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) through pharmaceutical interventions have remained inflexible. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively removed regulatory restrictions that experts in the field of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) have been proposing for decades and has expanded access to care. The regulatory flexibilities implemented to avoid unnecessary COVID-related death must be made permanent to ensure that improved access to evidence-based treatment remains available to vulnerable individuals with OUD who otherwise face formidable barriers to MOUD. We must seize this moment of COVOD-19 regulatory flexibilities to demonstrate the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of delivering treatment for OUD through a low-threshold approach.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

22 keywords...

hide…