751 - The New Federal Regulations Aimed Making Methadone More Accessible—And Less Stigmatizing
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2024
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
Methadone is a highly effective treatment for substance use disorder but strict regulations like daily clinic visits have led to its nickname, "liquid handcuffs." Dr. Yngvild Olsen, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services administration, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about new federal regulations that expand access to this life saving medication. They talk about how the COVID era showed that changes can make methadone much easier to prescribe and access, and how these updates are part of a critical cultural shift towards making substance use treatment more reasonable, equitable, and compassionate.
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:32.3 | This is Ziz Smith-Rougers, producer of public health on call. |
| 0:36.0 | Today, we return to the topic of methadone access, |
| 0:39.5 | this time to discuss some exciting regulatory updates. Dr. Inville Olson, director of the Center for Substance |
| 0:45.9 | Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, talks with me |
| 0:50.8 | about new flexibilities in how methadone is prescribed and accessed and how these updates, which came about because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are part of a larger cultural change towards making substance use treatment a more equitable, intuitive, and compassionate system. |
| 1:07.8 | Let's listen. |
| 1:09.3 | Dr. Infield Olson, thank you so much for being on public health on call. |
| 1:13.4 | Today, we're talking about some new flexibility and regulations of how methadone is prescribed |
| 1:18.7 | and accessed. And methadone treatment is highly effective, but we know it's stigmatized. It's often |
| 1:24.4 | really difficult for patients to get. We're going to talk about those new |
| 1:27.8 | regulations, but first, could you describe some of the challenges that have made methadone so |
| 1:32.4 | inaccessible in the past? Sure, and it's so great to be here. Methadone, as you said, is one of the |
| 1:38.7 | most effective treatments that we have for opiates disorder. But for many years, going back 50 years, one of the challenges |
| 1:46.2 | was that you could only get it in opioid treatment programs, specially certified, accredited |
| 1:51.5 | opioid treatment programs that had very rigid rules. And so for the most part, you know, |
| 1:56.8 | one of the biggest things there was that people had to go to the clinic almost daily |
| 2:01.3 | to get their dose. And for many people where, you know, they might live two to three hours |
| 2:07.9 | away from the closest opiate treatment program, that was really hard. And it took almost a year, |
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