Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115946

Anthony C. Tommasello, PhD, Michelle L. Campbell, MS, and Greg Bujak, BS. Office of Substance Abuse Studies, Univeristy of Maryland School of Pharmacy, 515 West Lombard Street, 2nd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410 706 7513, atommase@rx.umaryland.edu

The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 authorizes new approaches to community management of opioid dependence. Qualified physicians may now utilize sublingual buprenorphine in outpatient medication management. Dispensing these prescriptions is a routine part of pharmacy practice. However, there is a potentially greater role for pharmacists now that opioid addiction is treated by primary care physicians. Pharmacists may be the most underutilized health care workers in the area of public health. They could perform screening and assessment services, and refer individuals to physicians qualified to prescribe buprenorphine as a measure to reduce opioid addiction in the community. As they have done in other chronic disease management, pharmacists can maximize the benefit of prescription therapy by counseling patients on proper medication use, protect patients by monitoring for and preventing drug interactions, and encourage medication adherence through patient education. Pharmacists can also encourage physicians to exercise their prescribing authority by partnering with them in making wise patient care decisions, and prevent diversion by exercising diligence in the dispensing process.

We collected 86 surveys from community dispensing pharmacists in New York, NY, Philadelphia, PA and Baltimore, MD. The pharmacists felt that dispensing buprenorphine was an appropriate role for community pharmacists. They exhibited positive attitudes toward treatment of opioid addicts with buprenorphine, and expressed positive beliefs about the benefits of opioid pharmacotherapy with buprenorphine. They would like to create formal ties with buprenorphine prescribers. Pharmacists felt there remains a need for education on legal, clinical, and pharmacological aspects of buprenorphine for treating opioid dependence.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Recognize how pharmacists services can be utilized in addiction treatment
• Discuss how DATA 2000 allows for more treatment options in opioid addiction

Keywords: Drug Abuse Treatment, Pharmacists

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.