Advisory

Clinical Support System Available to Assist Physicians who Treat Patients Dependent on Opiates

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced the availability of the Physician Clinical Support System (PCSS) to assist physicians who prescribe or dispense buprenorphine to their patients dependent on heroin or prescription drugs containing opiates.

SAMHSA, in collaboration with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and other specialty addiction medicine, psychiatric, pain and general medicine societies, created the support system to assist physicians in the appropriate use of buprenorphine, and to promote improved patient care, research and education.

The PCSS supports primary care physicians, pain specialists, psychiatrists and other non-addiction medical practitioners, and is designed to significantly increase access to buprenorphine treatment among the millions of untreated opioid dependent patients. It will offer support on patient selection; induction; dosing and patient monitoring; and treatment of polysubstance dependence or co-occurring conditions. The PCSS is designed to significantly increase access to buprenorphine treatment among the millions of untreated opioid dependent patients.

The PCSS is a national network of 45 trained physician mentors with expertise in addiction treatment and skilled in clinical education, who are supported by a PCSS Medical Director, and by 5 physicians who are national experts in the use of buprenorphine. The physicians within the network provide services via telephone, email, and/or at the place of clinical practice, thereby allowing others to observe them providing office-based treatment with buprenorphine.

The PCSS is a free service.  To find a PCSS clinician in your locale or region, to become a PCSS mentor, or for more information about the project, email the PCSS staff at PCSSproject@asam.org, or by calling 877-630-8812, or fax. 301-656-3815 and website: http://www.PCSSmentor.org.

SAMHSA, a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the lead federal agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services in the United States.

This page was last updated on  July 27, 2005
SAMHSA is An Agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service