Reports Show Challenges Remain In Addiction Treatment Medication Access

 Center for Disease Control and Prevention data indicate opioid overdose deaths in the Ohio Valley declined in 2018, the first time in nearly a decade. 

Researchers say this is cause for optimism. But two new studies warn that access to medication assisted treatment, or MAT, for people with opioid use disorders continues to be a challenge.

A Johns Hopkins University analysis of the 2017 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services published Friday in JAMA Psychiatry found problems with MAT availability and use in residential treatment facilities.