More than 70% of residential treatment programs in the U.S. don’t offer the medical standard of care for opioid addiction, a new report published in JAMA shows.
The big picture: Many facilities pushed clinically irrelevant therapies or outright discouraged widely accepted medication-based therapies.
By the numbers: Researchers called 368 programs posing as uninsured heroin users asking for care options.
- Just 29% of facilities offered maintenance treatment with buprenorphine, while more than 20% discouraged the drug's use. 31% offered medication-assisted treatment, but only for short term "detox."
- 92% offered some kind of 12-step programming. Many also offered group therapy.
- Many also offered yoga, animal therapy or massage — therapies with little to no basis in evidence.
