title: The effect of an electronic medicine dispenser on diversion of buprenorphine-naloxone-experience from a medium-sized Finnish city.
abstract: Providing unobserved opioid substitution treatment (OST) safely is a major challenge. This study examined whether electronic medicine dispensers (EMDs) can reduce diversion of take-home buprenorphine-naloxone (BNX) in a medium-sized Finnish city. All BNX treated OST patients in Kuopio received their take-home BNX in EMDs for 4months. EMDs' effect on diversion was investigated using questionnaires completed by patients (n=37) and treatment staff (n=19), by survey at the local needle exchange service and by systematic review of drug screen data from the Kuopio University Hospital. The majority of patients (n=21, 68%) and treatment staff (n=11, 58%) preferred to use EMDs for the safe storage of tablets. Five patients (16%) declared that EMDs had prevented them from diverting BNX. However, EMDs had no detectable effect on the availability or origin of illegal BNX or on the hospital-treated buprenorphine-related health problems. EMDs may improve the safety of storage of take-home BNX, but their ability to prevent diversion needs further research.
authors: University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio Campus, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland. hanna.uosukainen@uef.fi
authors: Hanna
authors: H
authors: Uosukainen
authors: Hannu
authors: H
authors: Pentikäinen
authors: Ulrich
authors: U
authors: Tacke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002047:Buprenorphine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D000069479:Buprenorphine, Naloxone Drug Combination; D003415:Crime / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004356:Drug Storage; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009270:Naloxone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D018671:Needle-Exchange Programs; D058850:Opiate Substitution Treatment / Q000379:methods*; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013607:Tablets; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000069479:Buprenorphine, Naloxone Drug Combination; D013607:Tablets; D009270:Naloxone; D002047:Buprenorphine