Primary care patient characteristics associated with completion of 6-month buprenorphine treatment.
BACKGROUND
Opioid addiction is prevalent in the United States. Detoxification followed by behavioral counseling (abstinence-only approach) leads to relapse to opioids in most patients. An alternative approach is substitution therapy with the partial opioid receptor agonist buprenorphine, which is used for opioid maintenance in the primary care setting. This study investigated the patient characteristics associated with completion of 6-month buprenorphine/naloxone treatment in an ambulatory primary care office.


METHODS
A retrospective chart review of 356 patients who received buprenorphine for treatment of opioid addiction was conducted. Patient characteristics were compared among completers and non-completers of 6-month buprenorphine treatment.


RESULTS
Of the 356 patients, 127 (35.7%) completed 6-month buprenorphine treatment. Completion of treatment was associated with counseling attendance and having had a past injury.


CONCLUSIONS
Future research needs to investigate the factors associated with counseling that influenced this improved outcome. Patients with a past injury might suffer from chronic pain, suggesting that buprenorphine might produce analgesia in addition to improving addiction outcome in these patients, rendering them more likely to complete 6-month buprenorphine treatment. Further research is required to test this hypothesis. Combination of behavioral and medical treatment needs to be investigated for primary care patients with opioid addiction and chronic pain.
Primary Care Research Institute, Family Medicine, University at Buffalo, 77 Goodell Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA. aneumann@buffalo.edu
Anne M
AM
Neumann
Richard D
RD
Blondell
Mohammadreza
M
Azadfard
Ganon
G
Nathan
Gregory G
GG
Homish
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002047:Buprenorphine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009294:Narcotics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D058850:Opiate Substitution Treatment / Q000379:methods*; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
D009294:Narcotics; D002047:Buprenorphine
Buprenorphine; Opioid addiction; Opioid dependence; Patient characteristics; Primary care; Treatment retention