Relapse Prevention Medications in Community Treatment for Young Adults with Opioid Addiction
BACKGROUND:
Despite
the well-known effectiveness and widespread use of relapse prevention
medications such as extended release naltrexone (XR-NTX) and buprenorphine for
opioid addiction in adults, less is known about their use in younger
populations.
METHODS:
This was
a naturalistic study using retrospective chart review of N = 56 serial
admissions into a specialty community treatment program that featured the use
of relapse prevention medications for young adults with opioid use disorders
(19-26). Treatment outcomes over 24 weeks included retention, and weekly
opioid negative urine tests.
RESULTS:
Patients
were mean age 23.1, 70% male, 86% Caucasian, 82% with history of injection
heroin use, and treated with either buprenorphine (77%) or XR-NTX (23%). The
mean number of XR-NTX doses received was 4.1. Retention was approximately 65%
at 12 weeks and 40% at 24 weeks, and rates of opioid negative urine
were 50% at 12 weeks and 39% at 24 weeks, with missing samples
imputed as positive. There were no statistically significant differences in
retention (t = 1.87, p = .06) or in rates of weekly opioid negative urine tests
(t = 1.96, p = .06) between medication groups, over the course of
24 weeks. The XR-NTX group had higher rates of weekly negative urine drug
tests for other non-opioid substances (t = 2.83; p < .05) compared to the
buprenorphine group. Males were retained in treatment longer and had higher
rates of opioid negative weeks compared to females.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our
results suggest that relapse prevention medications including both
buprenorphine and XR-NTX can be effectively incorporated into standard community
treatment for opioid addiction in young adults with good results. Specialty
programming focused on opioid addiction in young adults may provide a promising
model for further treatment development.
- 1 Maryland Treatment Centers , Baltimore , MD , USA.
- 2 Johns Hopkins School of Medicine , Baltimore , MD , USA.
- Subst Abus. 2016 Jan 28:0
No comments:
Post a Comment