BDN Reports on Social Work Grad Students’ Suboxone Research

The Bangor Daily News reported on research conducted by three graduate social work students at the University of Maine. Last fall, Mikala Thompson, Alaina Crowley and Daniel Cohen began researching how many doctors in the state prescribed Suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, according to the article. Three months after the students began planning their project, Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to eliminate state funding for methadone treatment in favor of Suboxone made headlines, the article states. By contacting the 100-plus doctors on a government list, the students found less than half prescribed Suboxone, according to Thompson, the project’s lead researcher. Forty-three confirmed they’re prescribing the medication, 42 confirmed they weren’t and 27 failed to respond, she said. “Maine is proposing policy decisions based on inaccurate data,” Thompson said. The article was a related story to the report, “‘A system that doesn’t exist:’ Without methadone, patients rely on addiction treatment few Maine doctors prescribe,” which also cited the study.