Brief Prescribing Support and Buprenorphine Adoption in Rural Primary Care

Is a brief buprenorphine prescribing support program designed for busy rural primary care offices feasible, acceptable, and effective at increasing willingness to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) and prescription of buprenorphine?In this cluster randomized clinical trial of 63 primary care clinicians in 27 rural community health centers, participants receiving the intervention rated the prescribing support program as highly feasible and acceptable. After the intervention, participants had higher willingness to treat OUD and to prescribe buprenorphine in the 6 months.These findings suggest that tailored buprenorphine prescribing support for primary care may be a promising strategy to expand access to buprenorphine in rural areas.

Corresponding Author: Berkeley Franz, PhD, Department of Social Medicine, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, 1 Ohio University, Heritage Hall, Athens, OH 45701 (franzb@ohio.edu).

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