Citation

Håkansson A, Kansson A, Widinghoff C, Abrahamsson T, Gedeon C. J. Addict. 2016; 2016: 1-8.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Hindawi Publishing)

DOI

10.1155/2016/6487217

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Interim medication-only treatment has been suggested for the initiation of opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) in opioid-dependent subjects, but this rarely has been studied using buprenorphine instead of methadone. Following a pilot trial assessing interim buprenorphine-naloxone treatment in order to facilitate transfer into OMT, we here aimed to study retention, and potential correlates of retention, in full-scale treatment. Thirty-six patients successfully referred from a waiting list through an interim treatment phase were followed for nine months in OMT. Baseline characteristics, as well as urine analyses during the interim phase and during full-scale OMT, were studied as potential correlates of retention. The nine-month retention in OMT was 83 percent (). While interim-phase urine samples positive for benzodiazepines did not significantly predict dropout from full-scale OMT (), urine samples positive for benzodiazepines within full-scale OMT were significantly associated with dropout (), in contrast to other substances and baseline characteristics. Retention remained high through nine months in this pilot study sample of patients referred through buprenorphine-naloxone interim treatment, but use of benzodiazepines is problematic, and the present data suggest that it may be associated with treatment dropout.

Language: en