With opioid deaths increasing, AMA urges expansion of proven treatment

CHICAGO — The American Medical Association (AMA) called on policymakers today to support proven approaches to treat opioid use disorder in light of new statistics showing a 10 percent increase in opioid fatalities last year.

“We know what works,” said Patrice A. Harris, M.D., chair of the AMA Opioid Task Force. “We can point to states where making access to medication assisted treatment (MAT) has been a priority, and the mortality rates are doing down. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provisional numbers yet again underscore that this epidemic will not be reversed until we deal with access issues and stigma associated with opioid misuse.”