SILVER SPRING, Md. — A panel of medical experts recommended Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration approve a new way of treating opioid addicts, using a slender rod implanted into the arm that delivers medicine for months at a time, according to today’s New York Times. Some doctors say it could help ease the national epidemic of drug overdoses.

The rod is about the size of a small matchstick and delivers daily doses of buprenorphine — one of the most common medical treatments for opioid addicts — for six-month periods. In controlled doses, buprenorphine can help the body withdraw from opioid addiction, but can also itself be addictive. That risk is increased by the fact that the medicine can be taken only by mouth, requiring patients, often ill from addiction, to manage their daily dosages.

The advisory panel voted 12 to 5 to recommend approval. The panel concluded that flaws in the evidence the company presented, including missing data in a clinical study, were not fatal, and that the product was roughly as effective as the oral form of the drug. They agreed it would be a useful tool for doctors in the face of a major public health epidemic and could help stem the flow of illicit use of buprenorphine.

Prescription drug abuse has become a major public health problem in the United States, with overdose deaths more than quadrupling since the late 1990s. In recent years, use of heroin, an opioid, has exploded, keeping the numbers of deaths from overdoses high. The federal health authorities reported recently that the number of opioid overdose deaths in 2014 was the highest on record.

Buprenorphine is a partial synthetic opioid and can help wean the body off more powerful opioids like heroin and methadone by offering a milder version of their euphoric effects, thereby preventing patients from having full-blown withdrawal symptoms.