Prescription opioid addiction has been a menace in Canada. Here is a guideline given by the Centre for addiction and mental care.

Team@CMHF

A new clinical guideline released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health will help enable health care practitioners to provide buprenorphine (combined with naloxone), the most effective medication since methadone to treat the growing problem of opioid addiction in Canada.

While Buprenorphine has been available in Canada since 2007, partly due to the absence of clinical guidelines it has been underutilized, particularly by the frontline caregivers in under-resourced and remote communities who could use it most.

The evidence-based “Clinical Practice Guideline Buprenorphine/Naloxone for Opioid Dependence” provides clinical recommendations for the initiation, maintenance and discontinuation of buprenorphine/naloxone maintenance treatment for people dependant on opioids in Ontario.

The guideline was developed by a multidisciplinary committee including specialists in addiction medicine, family medicine and pharmacy from CAMH,
“This guideline will help educate practitioners about improved patient access to treatment for opioid dependence, and safe prescribing and dispensing of buprenorphine/naloxone,” said Dr. Peter Selby, Clinical Director of CAMH’s Addictions Program. “It will also help policy makers understand the value of making this medication available to those battling an addiction to illegal opioids or prescription medication.”

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada’s largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, as well as one of the world’s leading research centres in the area of addiction and mental health. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development, prevention and health promotion to transform the lives of people affected by mental health and addiction issues.

Ref: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/477649