From where I sit, as an outpatient therapist, Felice J. Freyer’s “Primary doctor gives call to action on addictions’’ (Page A1, Feb. 19) is a timely article. When a patient comes into my office and whispers that they may have a problem with pills, I request to talk to their doctor. Given approval, I always call the primary care physician. But over the years, only a handful of doctors would take my call to discuss their patient’s addiction, and some of them continued to prescribe opioids.

I ask the patient if his or her doctor ever asks how long it takes the patient to go through a 30-day supply, and the answer, sadly, is too few. The primary care provider either does not want to know, or is not aware, that a simple question can help assess dependence.

If only more PCPs were like Dr. Audrey Provenzano, the doctor Freyer cites in her article, then those of us in the field would finally have partners when treating people who fall into physical dependence.

Margot Trotter Davis

Chestnut Hill

The writer is a licensed independent clinical social worker, and is a senior research associate at the Institute for Behavioral Health at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.