Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) 

  • September 9, 2021
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) 

Subject – Governance

Context – Punjab will tackle its drug problem with opioid assisted treatment

Concept –

  • The move to set up OOAT centres in Punjab began in October 2017.
  • The centres administer de-addiction medicine, a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone, to the opioid dependent people registering there.
  • Administered in the form of a pill, the treatment is primarily for addicts of opioid drugs, including heroin, poppy husk and opium.
  • There are currently 202 government-run OOAT centres, including 11 in jails, where medicine is given free of cost.
  • In private centres, depending on the brand, a pill containing 2 mg of buprenorphine and 0.5 mg naloxone costs between Rs 25 to Rs 35 based on maximum retail price.
  • The dosage of the medicine varies depending upon the severity and duration of illness and type of illicit opioid used, but on an average it is three to four tablets 6 mg to 8 mg per day.
  • Also Punjab Government has decided to launch a 100-day Big Bang programme to check the problem of drugs.
Governance Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT)