Public policy statement on Office-Based Opioid Agonist Treatment (OBOT).

Methadone maintenance treatment of opioid addiction was developed in 1965 and implemented in the United States as a form of opioid agonist treatment. In the 1970s, a system of federal regulation was imposed in response to reports of diversion of methadone into illicit channels. In 1993, the US government gave approval to LAAM as a second maintenance medication, and, in 2002, buprenorphine, a partial agonist with an improved safety profile, was approved for limited office use by specially qualified physicians. [See ASAM Public Policy Statements: Methadone Treatment, rev. 1991, and Buprenorphine for Opiate Dependence and Withdrawal, rev. 2002.]