American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD)

The American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) was founded in 1984 as the Northeast Regional Methadone Treatment Coalition, Inc. Treatment providers joined together to support the legitimacy of methadone maintenance treatment for opioid dependence and to increase the availability of comprehensive treatment services to people in need of care. The Northeast Coalition evolved into the national organization in 1991, known originally as the American Methadone Treatment Association, Inc. (AMTA), to better coordinate the efforts of methadone treatment providers throughout the United States. When the organization went national, we expanded our goals to include organizing the treatment community throughout the United States. The Board of Directors approved the current name in 2001 to better embrace all forms of opioid pharmacotherapy. AATOD also began working more formally with our European partner (EUROPAD) in forming the World Federation for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence during a EUROPAD meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia during July 2007. EUROPAD and AATOD jointly filed an application to the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) to the United Nations of Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) during 2009. The World Federation received an approval for its NGO application during the first quarter of 2011, which will allow us to work with programs and governments in member nations of the UN to increase access to medication-assisted treatment for chronic opioid addiction wherever it is needed.