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. 2024 Mar;137(3):280-283.
doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2023.11.004. Epub 2023 Nov 19.

Buprenorphine Use in the United States, 2010-2019

Michelle Geyer Thompson  1 , Akira Kuriyama  2 , Toru Yoshino  3 , Mary G Murphy  4 , Jeffrey L Jackson  5
Affiliations

Buprenorphine Use in the United States, 2010-2019

Michelle Geyer Thompson et al. Am J Med. 2024 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Buprenorphine is effective for the treatment of opioid use disorder and chronic pain, has a safer pharmacological profile than full mu-opioid agonists, and can now be prescribed by any US provider with a Drug Enforcement Administration license. This study aimed to examine a decade of buprenorphine prescribing patterns in the United States.

Methods: We abstracted opioid and buprenorphine prescribing patterns, including patient characteristics, from the 2010-2019 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, a national probability sample of non-federal, ambulatory encounters.

Discussion: Among 248,164 ambulatory encounters, opioids were prescribed 2.6%-4.3% of the time with a rate that peaked in 2013 and has been steadily declining. Buprenorphine was infrequently prescribed. Patients receiving buprenorphine were predominantly male (59%), white (70%), younger in age, and had higher rates of substance use disorder (72%).

Conclusion: Buprenorphine is infrequently used, despite being effective for pain and safer than full mu-opioid agonists. The Drug Enforcement Administration recently ended the requirement for prescribers to obtain an X-waiver, which may increase the rate of buprenorphine use among US practitioners.

Keywords: Buprenorphine; Chronic Pain; Opioid Use Disorder; Opioids.

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