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Vermont Sees 'Significant Shift' Toward Treating Addiction In A Doctor's Office

James Rebinskas
Lynn McCrea
/
Vermont Public Radio
James Rebinskas had been receiving Suboxone through the Chittenden Center in South Burlington, but recently switched to seeing a physician in a traditional doctor's office.

Opiate addiction and how best to treat it continues to be a focus in Vermont. And that includes the question of where to provide medication-assisted treatment.

Often, people are seen in one of Vermont’s five main treatment centers, or "hubs." But lately, physicians are being encouraged to see such patients in their own local practices.

Physicians like Dr. Alicia Jacobs, whose office is in Colchester. “I think that, in the end, we all understand that opiate addiction — or ‘substance use disorders,'  as they’re now called — really is a chronic relapsing, remitting illness that needs attention in a medical home,” Jacobs says.

Read the full story from Vermont Public Radio:

Vermont Sees 'Significant Shift' Toward Treating Addiction In A Doctor's Office