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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2005, 07, 1 (pages: 39 - 46)

Symptomatic treatment of opiate withdrawal syndrome by low-dose buprenorphine in an in-patient setting

Fuscone A., Correale M., Romualdo M., Bianchi W.

Summary: The present study aims to assess the effectiveness of buprenorphine treatment in countering predictable withdrawal from street opiates in 68 opiate-addicts who requested admission to an in-patient opiate detoxification facility. Buprenorphine was administered at flexible doses, on a patient-blind clinical basis. Withdrawal was assessed by scoring a range of symptoms at the start of treatment (T0) and three more times during treatment (T1-T3). The dropout rate was 14.7% and was not predicted by baseline clinical features. The average duration of treatment was 7.5 days. By then, buprenorphine had provided patients with quick-acting, stable protection against withdrawal symptoms and was well tolerated. Additional drugs were successfully resorted to when non-specific symptoms such as anxiety and insomnia were prominent. Buprenorphine proved effective in soothing withdrawal-related symptoms in a subgroup of mildly ill subjects. The short-term dropout in this population did not seem to be related to the severity of baseline withdrawal or to the absence of earlier improvement under buprenorphine.