Buprenorphine Use in Serious Illness: A Podcast with Katie Fitzgerald Jones, Zachary Sager and Janet Ho

Buprenorphine. It's been around for a long time but is acting like the hot new kid in town. Just look at this year's AAHPM meeting, where it felt like every other session was talking about how hot buprenorphine is right now. But does this drug really live up to the hype?

On today's podcast we talk with three experts on buprenorphine on why, when, and how to use it in serious illness. Our experts include Katie Fitzgerald Jones (palliative nurse practitioner and doctoral student at Boston College), Zachary Sager (palliative care physician at the Boston VA and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), and Janet Ho (physician at UCSF in addiction medicine and palliative care).

We try to cover a lot in a 45 minute podcast, but if there is one take-away, it's that all of us who prescribe opioids should learn how to use buprenorphine and that we should all sign up for a DEA X-waiver at www.getwaivered.com or at www.buprenorphine.samhsa.gov (now you can treat up to 30 patients without completing the additional educational training, so signing up takes about 5 minutes).

And if you want to learn more about buprenorphine from these amazing palliative care clinicians and others, check out of some of these articles:

Learn more about caring for those with substance use disorder:

• Adapting Palliative Care Skills to Provide Substance Use Disorder Treatment to Patients With Serious Illness

Learn about using the low dose buprenorphine patch:

• Low-Dose Buprenorphine Patch for Pain - Fast Fact

Learn about how to initiate buprenorphine:

• Sublingual Buprenorphine Initiation: The Traditional Method - Palliative Care Network of Wisconsin
• Low Dose Initiation of Buprenorphine: A Narrative Review and Practical Approach

Good review on buprenorphine for pain

• Understanding Buprenorphine for Use in Chronic Pain: Expert Opinion