Research network involvement and addiction treatment center staff: Counselor attitudes toward buprenorphine

The National Institute on Drug Abuse's Clinical Trials Network (CTN) aims to improve addiction treatment in the United States in part through technology transfer. Given the importance of clinicians in the technology transfer process, this research compares 561 CTN-affiliated and 1,745 non-CTN counselors' ratings of buprenorphine acceptability. CTN-affiliated counselors reported significantly greater acceptability than non-CTN counselors. This difference was not explained by controlling for counselor characteristics, but was completely attenuated by measures of buprenorphine-specific training and buprenorphine implementation. These data suggest that the CTN's impact on counselor attitudes may be attributed to the greater exposure to buprenorphine received by CTN-affiliated counselors.