ASAM Writes to FDA Regarding Need for More Medication Treatment Options for Patients with SUD

Foremost to the American Society of Addiction Medicine's (ASAM) mission is increasing access to and improving the quality of addiction treatment. Patients with substance use disorder (SUD), like all patients, should have available to them a robust and varied array of treatment options as no one treatment modality is appropriate or therapeutic for everyone.

The dearth of FDA-approved pharmacotherapies for the treatment of SUD prompted ASAM to write to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging them to take into consideration the need for access to multiple treatment options for clinicians and their patients as they consider applications for new products to treat SUD. In the letter, ASAM emphasized that addiction is a complex condition and clinicians and their patients need access to multiple, nuanced treatment options to meet their unique needs and circumstances.

ASAM contends that access to multiple formulations and dosages expands the number of available effective and safe treatment options for SUD, and can help advance efforts to address the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic.

Read the letter here.