Counselor attitudes toward buprenorphine in the Clinical Trials Network.

Research on counselors’ perceptions of buprenorphine’s effectiveness and acceptability largely occurred in its initial phase of availability. The researchers hypothesized that there are measurable gaps in these attitudes, but that training is positively associated with perceived effectiveness and acceptability. To determine whether this was true, counselors in the CTN were mailed surveys measuring their perceived effectiveness and acceptability of buprenorphine, buprenorphine-specific training, program-level adoption, and professional/demographic characteristics. Substantial proportions of counselors reported that they did not know if buprenorphine was effective or acceptable, suggesting that additional dissemination efforts and training are needed. Such efforts may improve counselor attitudes, given that data indicates that greater buprenorphine-specific training was positively associated with both perceived effectiveness and acceptability.