Buprenorphine Opioid Treatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

To our knowledge, Nguyen et al were the first group to report on the consequences of enabling telehealth initiation of buprenorphine for management of opioid use disorders (OUDs) during the COVID-19 crisis. We read with much excitement their results, which showed a plateau in buprenorphine prescriptions while overall drug prescriptions declined between March 2020 and June 2020. We believe that the trends they report shed light both on the boon of flexible prescription via telehealth and on some potential oversights to address moving forward. These include ensuring treatment initiation and continuation for the most vulnerable patients, who might not have access to telehealth, and surveilling access to other OUD medications through the pandemic. In conclusion, Nguyen et al1 present an interesting first evaluation of recent policy efforts to facilitate OUD management in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.