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Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry Dr Ciaran Somers analyses the potential advantages of an accelerated move to buprenorphine from methadone in pharmacies and GP clinics during Covid-19

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and difficulties encountered with supplying clients on opioid substitution therapy (OST) with their regular methadone dose, I present a case for the accelerated introduction of buprenorphine as an alternative to methadone OST in Ireland. As of September 2020, there were 376 clients prescribed buprenorphine in Ireland, as compared to almost 10,000 remaining on methadone. Factors in favour of buprenorphine include safer delivery, shorter duration of titration to a therapeutic dose, and a better side-effect profile relative to methadone......