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.