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Editor's Note
January 22, 2024

The Importance of Treating Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
  • 2Deputy Editor, JAMA Internal Medicine
JAMA Intern Med. 2024;184(3):255. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.7272

During the ongoing opioid epidemic, it is crucial that pregnant people with opioid use disorder (OUD) receive accepted medical treatment with methadone or buprenorphine to prevent infections, overdose, and death in the pregnant person, as well as fetal death and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. Internists and other primary care physicians have an important role to play in ensuring that pregnant persons receive appropriate treatment for OUD. In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Suarez et al1 provide new information on the risk of major congenital abnormalities associated with use of methadone and buprenorphine during pregnancy. Given the importance of ensuring that pregnant people with OUD receive treatment during pregnancy and after birth, we have taken the unusual step of publishing 2 accompanying Invited Commentaries.2,3

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