Lead: Adjunctive psychosocial interventions and opioid abstinence among patients receiving buprenorphine: A randomized clinical trialLead: Adjunctive psychosocial interventions and opioid abstinence among patients receiving buprenorphine: A randomized clinical trial
This Week in Addiction Medicine from ASAM
Zach Caruso presents a series of recent studies on opioid use disorder treatments, harm reduction strategies, and related behavioural and neurological issues. The episode focuses on what current research suggests about psychosocial supports, medication access, AI in testing, and public and youth perspectives on drug use and discipline.
7:36•7 Jul 2026
Fresh Findings in Opioid Care, Harm Reduction, and Brain Health
Episode Overview
- Adjunctive psychosocial interventions such as CBT and peer recovery support did not show different effects on opioid abstinence when added to buprenorphine in early treatment.
- Extra-medical use of medications for opioid use disorder was more common among people with multiple substance use, injection drug use, recent incarceration, or homelessness.
- Collaborative care in primary care did not change days of risky opioid use, but was linked to lower rates of moderate to severe OUD and less high-risk prescription opioid use over time.
- Increasing geographic availability of OUD medications appears helpful but is not sufficient to address racial and ethnic disparities in their use among Medicaid enrollees.
- Compulsive tanning may share features with substance use disorders, and CBT plus sunless tanning products are suggested as harm reduction strategies.
“Researchers found that neither PRS, CBT, nor a combination of these psychosocial interventions yielded differential effects on opioid abstinence.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This news-packed episode of "This Week in Addiction Medicine" offers a rapid-fire tour through current research on opioid use, treatment strategies, and related behavioural issues, all framed for clinicians, policymakers, and anyone interested in evidence-based recovery. Hosted by Zach Caruso for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the lead story looks at a randomised clinical trial of 340 adults with opioid use disorder taking buprenorphine.
The study compared cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), peer recovery support (PRS), and a combination of both as add-ons to standard buprenorphine care. As Zach explains, researchers found that "neither PRS, CBT, nor a combination of these psychosocial interventions yielded differential effects on opioid abstinence," raising real questions about how much extra benefit these supports offer in the early phase of treatment.
From there, the episode moves through a series of studies that shine a light on complex realities behind opioid treatment. You’ll hear about extra-medical use of medications for opioid use disorder among people prescribed methadone or buprenorphine, and a collaborative care intervention in primary care aimed at reducing risky opioid use, which showed lower rates of moderate to severe OUD and high-risk prescription use in the intervention group.
The briefing also covers racial and ethnic differences in access to medications for opioid use disorder among Medicaid enrollees, the use of AI to speed up and sharpen urine drug test interpretation, and even "tanorexia" – compulsive tanning behaviours with uncanny similarities to substance use disorders. Finally, opioid-associated hippocampal injury and public views on supervised consumption sites are discussed, along with youth perspectives on cannabis-related school discipline.
If you’re interested in what current data actually say about treatment, harm reduction, and long-term brain impacts, this episode offers a compact but data-rich snapshot. Which of these findings might shift how you think about support and safety in addiction care?
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