Targeting the brain

Doctors treating drug addiction emphasize that the keys to saving lives are getting medication to the people most in need and developing community partnerships, according to a news release from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System in New York.

Successful programs include the use in primary care settings of buprenorphine, a medication that prevents opioid withdrawal; community partnerships that focus on distribution of safe syringes, prevention of overdoses, and health-care support for drug users; and home toolkits for people struggling with addiction that include buprenorphine, supplementary medications, instructions, and education on self-management.

“We have made tremendous progress in understanding that addiction is a brain disease and that the best way to reach people in danger is at the community level, through programs like these,” Dr. Steven Safyer, president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine, says in the release. “We have the right tools, and it is time to make them work.”