The American Medical Association (AMA) released a major report urging expanded access to addiction treatment while cautioning that patients with pain continue to face significant barriers to individualized care, outlining five priority areas with actionable steps to reduce drug poisonings and improve care for patients with pain and substance use disorders.
- Pain care: The AMA emphasizes the need for individualized, patient‑centered pain management by preserving physician discretion, reforming restrictive policies, and expanding access to variety of treatment options, including nonpharmacologic care and opioid therapy when indicated.
- Treatment for opioid-use disorder: Although medications such as buprenorphine and methadone are proven to save lives, they remain underutilized due to stigma, regulatory hurdles, and insurance barriers, prompting the AMA to call for eliminating prior authorization and expanding methadone access beyond traditional, highly regulated opioid treatment programs.
- Naloxone:To prevent fatal drug poisonings, the AMA supports broader naloxone availability through over-the-counter access, emergency department distribution, and community‑based programs that ensure rapid and widespread administration.
- Emerging threats: With polysubstance use increasingly involving stimulants, xylazine, kratom, tianeptine, and inhalants; and rising rates of cannabis‑use disorder that heighten mental health and pregnancy risks, the AMA calls for enhanced surveillance, research, and targeted public policies to reduce emerging harms.
- Policy priorities: The AMA urges stronger enforcement of mental health and substance use disorder parity laws, removal of treatment barriers for patients with pain and addiction, and reinforced drug poisoning‑prevention strategies focused on youth and populations at highest risk.
Read the report.