“Many patients who want to stop using buprenorphine for opioid use disorder were not able to, according to findings recently published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of 1,308 adults receiving buprenorphine. During a median follow-up of 316 days, 48 patients tapered off the medication, for an estimated proportion of 15% of all patients. Only 22 of these tapers were medically supervised, and after a median follow-up of 490 days, 13 of the 48 patients resumed buprenorphine treatment.
Characteristics of the 48 patients who were able to taper off buprenorphine included: mean age of initial opioid use was 22 years; mean age of enrolling in an office-based addiction treatment clinic was 38 years; 74.5% were white; 37.5% were women; and 30.8% had not finished high school. In addition, 41.7% of the 48 patients who were able to stop using buprenorphine had a lowest mean daily dose of more than 8 mg before taper completion, 31.3% of patients had a minimum daily dose 4 mg or less prior to completing the taper, and 27.1% had a minimum dose between 8 mg and 5 mg.”
Source: Healio.com – July 18, 2018
