Medication for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy Is Essential

National practice groups and decades of research strongly support treating opioid use disorder (OUD) as a chronic illness and specifically call for the use of evidence-based medications to treat OUD throughout pregnancy and beyond. The criterion-standard medications for OUD (MOUD), including during pregnancy, are buprenorphine (approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2002) and methadone (approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat OUD in 1972). While evidence suggests that pregnancy may represent a specific window of opportunity to engage individuals in MOUD and that MOUD leads to better outcomes for the maternal-infant dyad, fewer than 1 in 4 individuals with OUD receive treatment in any given month of pregnancy.

from JAMA Internal Medicine Online First https://ift.tt/O24WuiF