Why Should I Take This Course?

• The rates of heroin use, heroin-related emergency room mentions, heroin-related overdose deaths, and the proportion of opioid-related addiction treatment admissions steadily and sharply rose throughout the 1990s, trends that appear to be continuing.
  
  
• Recent legislation permits office-based treatment of opioid addiction with buprenorphine by physicians. This was enacted to increase treatment access, offer treatment to patients outside of the traditional methadone clinic system, and to mainstream treatment by coordinating it with general medical treatment.
  
  
• Addiction counselors have an important role working with prescribing physicians as a therapeutic team to provide opioid addiction treatment with buprenorphine in office settings.
  
  
• Addiction counselors who work in settings other than office-based treatment should have a solid understanding about the use of buprenorphine for treatment of opioid addiction in office settings. With this knowledge, addiction counselors can provide accurate information and relevant referrals.