Expanding Access to Addiction Treatment

This paper explores strategies to expand practical access to evidence-informed addiction treatment interventions among persons living with substance use disorders—particularly persons living with opioid use disorder (OUD), who face remarkable risks of death in the shadow of an escalating overdose epidemic. Almost 100,000 Americans die every year from fatal overdoses. Despite recent declines, more than 70,000 of these deaths involve opioids. Expanding practical access to effective treatments, particularly to medications for OUD (treatments denoted MOUD by addiction treatment providers and researchers), is a central challenge in addressing the overdose epidemic.