Opioid use disorder and youth: Agonists recommended

Abstract

Extreme concern about opioid overdoses and overdose deaths among young people is dovetailing with solutions — in particular, expanding treatment with buprenorphine and methadone for this population. Expansion of treatment for adolescents and young adults — ages 15 to 25 — with opioid use disorders (OUDs) is critical, researcher after researcher has written. But there has been a reticence by parents in particular, and even by some clinicians, about prescribing buprenorphine, a Schedule III opioid, to young people, or to sending them to an opioid treatment program (the only kind of facility in the United States where methadone can be dispensed for OUD). Both medications can be given to youth as young as 16.