[Absence of correlation between mental disorders and high-dose buprenorphine. A case-control study].
BACKGROUND
In France today, the treatment of opiate and notably heroin addiction with high-dose buprenorphine (HDB) is widespread. Although this treatment has been successful to some extent, problems persist. One is that some percentage (estimated at 17-47%) of patients "misuses" their HDB, either by intravenous injection or inhalation. This misuse presents a public health problem, since injecting drug users are more frequently infected by hepatitis C, and may even jeopardize the treatment's efficacy.


METHODS
Our study compared a sample of 26 patients treated with sublingual HDB who reported injecting it on occasion and 27 patients under HDB who did not inject it.


RESULTS
There was no evidence of more psychiatric disorders in the population that injected HDB than in the population that did not. Conversely, the patients injecting HDB used more illicit products, more benzodiazepines and more alcohol.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite its efficacy, substitution treatment does not appear to provide relief for some patients. HDB injection may thus correspond to a search for a precarious balance: the disruption of the HDB kinetics induced by its injection would be aimed at enhancing the opiate effect. The consumption of other licit and illicit psychotropic agents indicates a further attempt to obtain relief from a persistent mental discomfort, over and above the substitution therapy and even its misuse. The reality of the psychological imbalance experienced with, induced by or pre-existing the heroin use requires rethinking the overall treatment. Future studies should lead to the identification of the disorders that lead these patients to seek relief in injections.
Phan
Olivier
O
Institut mutualiste Montsouris, service de psychiatrie, Paris (75).
Sanchez
Mario
M
Bouthillon-Heitzmann
Pascale
P
D000286:Administration, Sublingual; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D002047:Buprenorphine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000008:administration & dosage; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D002047:Buprenorphine