Mentor Comments
"Some of my patients who are now on buprenorphine maintenance were on methadone maintenance and found the daily visits to the dosing window difficult or impossible. It’s nice to be able to offer an office-based treatment that doesn’t require daily attendance at a dosing window, but I wish those patients who were doing well on methadone didn’t have to change medications. I wish we had more venues to offer both types of treatment. It would be nice to have some patients pick up daily doses at a local pharmacy as is available in other countries."
Physician Mentor
San Francisco, CA
"I like treating addiction. Patients get better. Treating a patient for addiction gives you a lot of bang for your buck. I have a young man, a single father of three, who lost custody of his children because of his pill problem. Today, after a year on Suboxone and with lots of good counseling, he is abstinent. He has regained custody of his children and, more importantly, is a good father. So, treating this young man is a great success for him and for me. But, also look at what it did for our community in general. He is no longer breaking and entering to support his habit, he is working and paying taxes, and he is much less likely to get a chronic expensive disease such as HIV that would require expensive treatment. His children are happy, healthy and more likely to grow up to become contributing members of society. Quite frankly, I don’t think there is any other area of medicine where treating one individual can accomplish so much."
Physician Mentor
Fishersville, VA
"As a rural primary care general internist in a small Appalachian coal mining town for the last three decades, I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in many meaningful things in my practice. However, none have been more meaningful or dramatic than buprenorphine treatment, which can indeed restore lives and families. Seeing patients whose lives are totally wrecked enter into treatment and become loving and responsible family members again, return to gainful employment, dig themselves out of very deep holes, regain their children previously placed in foster care, graduate college or professional school, and beyond---is a great privilege to be able to be a part of all that."
Physician Mentor
St. Charles, VA
"We all have stories of lives and families reunited. Without question buprenorphine has been a great medication used in the context of treatment."
Physician Mentor
Shrewsbury, NJ
"I began mentoring a physician and she faced fairly insurmountable challenges. She works on an island with no treatment services and in a community that actively supports substance abuse (alcoholism, opiate addiction). New to Suboxone maintenance therapy, she was beginning to despair. My experience in office-based treatment was valuable, as I coached her on limit-setting, dealing with diversion and in promoting the role of Twelve Step recovery (especially given the lack of formal treatment resources). In particular, giving her realistic expectations of outcomes for Suboxone maintenance therapy helped to maintain her motivation to continue."
Physician Mentor
Westbrook, ME

