The Gray Area Between MOUD Research And Reality: Two Viewpoints On Why It Matters – Part I
By Jason Snyder, Director, SUD Treatment Services, BH Division and
Chris McKenzie, Community Relations Coordinator, Pinnacle Treatment Centers
October 15, 2025
Editor’s note: I asked my good friend Chris McKenzie, Community Relations Coordinator at Pinnacle Treatment Centers, to collaborate with me on a blog about what we both see as a gap between what research tells us about medications to treat opioid use disorder and the prevailing attitudes toward it in the treatment and recovery communities. We have shared our firsthand experiences here as Part I of a two-part blog. In Part II, we will discuss our suggestions for greater genuine acceptance of multiple pathways to recovery as well as address feedback we may get on Part I.
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(Jason)
Several years ago, I met an individual in recovery from addiction who eventually went on to become a therapist. As our friendship and my own 12 step-based recovery from substance use disorder evolved, so did my position on medication to treat opioid use disorder (MOUD). His did not. Where once I was staunchly opposed, I was now beginning to embrace the idea, if for no other reason than the rising overdose death toll and the devastating stories of loss I continued to hear. I bought into the messaging that said we can’t treat someone who is dead.
My friend still failed to see the light.
“But the research shows it to be highly effective,” I ineffectively implored.
“Well, you need to show me this research, because I just don’t see it,” he replied.
In the end, it really didn’t matter what research I showed him, because that research did not match his reality. It could not overcome his perception, personal experience with individuals using MOUD, and definition of recovery, which was based on a belief that use of medication was nothing more than substituting one drug for another. And unfortunately, he is not an anomaly, at least within what I’ll call the traditional treatment system and recovery communities. For most of them, the gold standard is not MOUD. It is abstinence combined with a new way of life, despite what many within these very systems will publicly say.
