Until the 2000 passage of the Drug Abuse Treatment Act, the American medical system largely treated those with substance abuse disorders by encouraging abstinence and directing patients to treatment centers, mental health counselors, or 12-step programs like Narcotics Anonymous.

“A lot of people want to malign primary care doctors for not owning their share of the problem, but it’s just not that simple,” Waller said. There are few incentives to get trained, however, especially in the many states whose Medicaid systems do not reimburse physicians for addiction treatment. “I get comments like, ‘I don’t want those people in my waiting room.’ Ones who are more well-meaning - which is most - say they have no training to treat this disease.” “I’ve had conversations with a few hundred primary care doctors to try to figure this out,” Waller said. That effort has yielded some early success, but according to ASAM, less than 1 percent of primary care doctors are now certified. The federal government last year embarked on an effort to double the number of doctors certified to treat addiction with buprenorphine, a drug shown to curb opioid cravings in most patients.

Obama unveils plan to allow more patients access to opioid medication Exclusive analysis of biotech, pharma, and the life sciences Learn More

Torrent doctors in training step 2 2017